Parents were often “pressured” into transitioning their children to treat gender dysphoria, after which the parents reported worse mental health outcomes for their children, according to a new study.

Northwestern University psychology professor Michael Bailey analyzed survey data from 1,655 parents of youth and young adult children who identified as the opposite sex or non-binary. The survey data was compiled by the anonymous support group Parents of Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) Kids, an organization that collects horror stories from parents whose children struggled with gender dysphoria.

The data collected came from families with children who began to identify as transgender between the ages of 11 and 21.

Bailey’s study found that gender dysphoria impacted girls much more often than boys, 75% of the gender dysphoric children were biological females. Girls were also much more likely to socially transition or more in order to match their gender identity. A history of mental health issues was a defining trait of most children who later struggled with gender dysphoria.

“Pre-existing mental health issues were common, and youths with these issues were more likely than those without them to have socially and medically transitioned,” the study says. “Parents reported that they had often felt pressured by clinicians to affirm their AYA child’s new gender and support their transition. According to the parents, AYA children’s mental health deteriorated considerably after social transition.”

Parents of ROGD Kids say the study backs up its assertions that one of the prime causes of gender dysphoria and transgender identification in young people is social contagion. Girls are especially susceptible to suggestion and group think influenced by their social circles, the group says.

“These youth are most likely using ‘gender dysphoria’ to describe general feelings of dysphoria that they have no other name for, and do not understand. Transitioning will not help them. It can only cause irreversible harm and make things much worse,” the group said in a press release touting the study.

In a footnote to its release, Parents of ROGD Kids also knocked The Washington Post for an article the paper published last month suggesting that transgender treatment led to happier outcomes from people who identify as transgender.

“On March 23, 2023, the Washington Post reported on a survey that found the majority of trans adults were happy they had transitioned. While they may feel that way, on every question relating to mental health and social functioning, they rated themselves as worse off than the total population surveyed,” the group said.

“Most alarming, 78% of trans respondents reported that they had serious mental health issues as a child or teenager. These results support our conclusion: Transitioning does not improve social and emotional functioning,” it added.

An overwhelming majority of Americans support school choice, which would allow parents to decide where their children are educated.

A 2022 poll found that 72% of respondents support giving parents the right to choose the school their child attends — a supermajority that extends across partisan lines, with 82% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats and 67% of independents in favor of the policy.

“Given how divided Americans are over almost everything, that’s about as bipartisan as it gets,” Mandy Drogin of the Texas Public Policy Foundation notes. “And given that politicians read the polls, school choice should be a slam dunk, right?”

Despite the broad support for such programs, however, political opposition to school choice remains fierce — entrenched education interests argue that allowing students and the tax dollars that follow them to transfer out of public schools and into private or charter schools will end or cripple public schools. Private and charter schools, unlike public schools, are not required to accept all students, and would leave defunded public schools with the students most difficult or expensive to educate while offering them none of the resources to care for them.

These interests are dominant in deep red states such as Texas as well as liberal bastions such as New York and California, all states where school choice remains limited. Drogin argues that the educational outcomes in these states have been suboptimal.“According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, 75% of Texas 8th graders are not proficient in reading and math,” Drogin says. “The state’s own assessments are just as grim: 60% of students cannot do math at grade level, and nearly 50% cannot read at grade level.”

Drogin argues that should Texas follow the lead of states like Florida and Iowa, which implemented broad statewide school choice programs in the early 2000s, it too could see vastly improved educational outcomes, especially for low income students. Florida and Iowa were rated in the bottom half of the 50 states in terms of educating such students in 2002, but both had climbed to the top 3 by 2019.

Drogin observed that in these states, public schools had largely not been abandoned: instead, the mere presence of competitors caused them to reform themselves and raise standards and test scores to retain their students and funding. A handful of low performing schools close but most public schools rise to the challenge — parents with a high quality local school have no reason to seek out alternatives.

“In states where parents have choice, public schools improve.”

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