Study reveals positive impact of COVID-19 lockdown on gender identity development

Research published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown had largely positive impacts on gender identity development in trans and gender diverse youth.

For the study, 295 transgender and gender diverse U.S. youth, ages 13–22 years, were asked the open-ended question "How has the COVID pandemic changed or affected your own understanding of your gender identity?"

Responses revealed several themes. The most prevalent was "time for identity development," suggesting that the pandemic and lockdown created space and time to explore and resolve their gender identity.

"The lockdown period of the pandemic gave many people the space and time to figure out who they are and what is important to them, which for many of our participants, included their gender identity," said corresponding author Sydney Hainsworth, who was a PhD student at the University of Arizona while conducting this research and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota.