Teen gender confusion associated with ‘trans’ peer groups, prior mental health issues
Most teens who identify as “transgendered” do so after joining peer groups with other gender-confused teens and have been previously diagnosed with at least one mental disorder, according to a new study being derided by pro-LGBT activists. Authored by Brown University behavioral scientist Lisa Littman and published last month in the Public Library of Science’s journal PLOS One, the study reviews 90-question surveys completed by 256 parents of gender-confused children. Eighty-three percent of their children were biologically female, with a mean age of 16.4 and 41 percent having expressed homosexual attraction prior to “coming out” as a different gender. The study found that 87 percent of the teens belonged to a friend group characterized by some degree of “social influence” on the subject, such as one or multiple other teens in the group announcing their transgenderism “during a similar time as they did” and/or exhibiting increased social media or internet use. Sixty-three percent o