Psychological wellbeing outcomes across genders in childhood and adolescence aged 8–18 years: a population-level perspective

This study aimed to examine the difference in levels of psychological wellbeing outcomes of binary and non-binary transgender and cisgender students aged 8–18 years in South Australia using population-level data. Student's gender was imputed based on their self-reported gender (male, female, other) and parent-reported gender at school enrolment (male, female). Two groups represented cisgender students (n = 64,467), while four groups represented transgender and non-binary students (transgender boys, transgender girls, non-binary students presumed male at birth, non-binary students presumed female at birth; n = 1,016). A descriptive analysis was conducted to calculate the difference in levels of low, medium, and high psychological wellbeing across five outcomes: life satisfaction, optimism, happiness, sadness, and worries. Most transgender groups reported poorer outcomes than cisgender groups across most wellbeing indicators. Non-binary students, particularly those presumed female at birth, had the poorest psychological wellbeing outcomes. Like prior research, students with a gender other than male or female reported substantially poorer outcomes, indicating a need for holistic school and community services that assist transgender-specific social-emotional needs.