# A Longitudinal Study of Gender Nonconformity in Prepubescent Children

> **NIH NIH R01** · CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES · 2020 · $682,652

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The purpose of this proposed study is to establish a national cohort of prepubertal transgender/gender-
nonconforming (TGNC) children (and their parents), and longitudinally observe this cohort to expand the body
of empirical knowledge pertaining to gender development and cognition in TGNC children, their mental health
symptomology and functioning over time, and how family-initiated social gender transition may predict or
alleviate mental health symptoms and/or diagnoses. Participants will be recruited and enrolled either at one of
four Gender Centers dedicated to their care (Children's Hospital Los Angeles/University of Southern California;
Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago/Northwestern University; Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical
School; Benioff Children's Hospital/University of California San Francisco), and followed over a 2-year
observational period, with clinical and behavioral data collected from prepubertal TGNC children and their
parents at 6-month intervals. The proposed study will use state-of-the-art measures and utilize statistical
advances in person-centered analytical approaches (i.e., latent class analysis and latent transition analysis) to
address inconsistencies in prior studies, which have focused primarily on variable-centered approaches. The
proposed study leverages the resources of the only NIH-funded network of US-based pediatric gender centers
(Grant #R01HD082554), expanding on this current collaboration (studying TGNC adolescents) to include a
younger and understudied cohort of prepubertal TGNC children. Together, these sites share a long-term goal
and anticipate expanding investigation into a program of research that examines the experiences and needs of
TGNC youth from early childhood through early adulthood. This proposal sets up an ideal framework to
continue collecting longitudinal data from the cohort recruited for this initial work, as well as understand the
additional complexities of this population based on the cohorts recruited in the companion study of peripubertal
and pubertal TGNC adolescents (Grant #R01-HD082554).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9898418
- **Project number:** 5R01HD097122-02
- **Recipient organization:** CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF LOS ANGELES
- **Principal Investigator:** Diane Chen
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $682,652
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-21 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9898418

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9898418, A Longitudinal Study of Gender Nonconformity in Prepubescent Children (5R01HD097122-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9898418. Licensed CC0.

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