Background:

Children are presenting in greater numbers to gender clinics around the world. Prospective longitudinal research is important to better understand outcomes and trajectories for these children. This systematic review aims to identify, describe and critically evaluate longitudinal studies in the field.

Method:

Five electronic databases were systematically searched from January 2000 to February 2020. Peer-reviewed articles assessing gender identity and psychosocial outcomes for children and young people (<18 years) with gender diverse identification were included.

Results:

Nine articles from seven longitudinal studies were identified. The majority were assessed as being of moderate quality. Four studies were undertaken in the Netherlands, two in North America and one in the UK. The majority of studies had small samples, with only two studies including more than 100 participants and attrition was moderate to high, due to participants lost to follow-up. Outcomes of interest focused predominantly on gender identity over time and emotional and behavioural functioning.

Conclusions:

Larger scale and higher quality longitudinal research on gender identity development in children is needed. Some externally funded longitudinal studies are currently in progress internationally. Findings from these studies will enhance understanding of outcomes over time in relation to gender identity development in children and young people.

中文翻译：

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儿童和青少年的性别认同发展：纵向研究的系统评价

背景：

越来越多的儿童到世界各地的性别诊所就诊。前瞻性纵向研究对于更好地了解这些儿童的结果和轨迹很重要。本系统评价旨在识别、描述和批判性评估该领域的纵向研究。

方法：

从 2000 年 1 月到 2020 年 2 月，系统地搜索了五个电子数据库。其中包括评估具有不同性别认同的儿童和年轻人（<18 岁）的性别认同和心理社会结果的同行评议文章。

结果：

确定了来自七项纵向研究的九篇文章。大多数被评估为中等质量。四项研究在荷兰进行，两项在北美，一项在英国。大多数研究的样本量较小，只有两项研究包括超过 100 名参与者，并且由于参与者失访而流失中到高。感兴趣的结果主要集中在随着时间的推移性别认同以及情绪和行为功能。

结论：

需要对儿童性别认同发展进行更大规模、更高质量的纵向研究。一些外部资助的纵向研究目前正在国际上进行。这些研究的结果将增强对儿童和年轻人性别认同发展结果的理解。