Clinician judgment in the diagnosis of gender identity disorder in children.
Ehrbar RD, Witty MC, Ehrbar HG, Bockting WO.
New Leaf Services for Our Community, San Francisco, California 94102-5402, USA. rdehrbar@att.net
Clinician judgment methodology was used to explore the influence of gender nonconformity and gender dysphoria on the diagnosis of children with Gender Identity Disorder (GID). A convenience sample of 73 licensed psychologists randomly received a vignette to diagnose. Vignettes varied across sex of child, gender conforming behavior, and gender dysphoria (including all possible permutations). Eight percent of respondents given a vignette involving a child who met purely behavioral criteria for GID diagnosed the child with GID. When additional information was provided, which in addition to gender nonconforming behavior the child also self-reported a cross-gender identity, this increased to 27% (significant at 5%).
PMID: 18770110 [PubMed - in process]