Parents of transgender youth faced declining mental health after the 2025 inauguration

A recent study revealed that parents of transgender adolescents faced deteriorating mental health and well-being following the 2025 U.S. presidential inauguration. Published in Psychological Science, the research underscores how abrupt policy shifts can adversely impact family members of marginalized communities. In the aftermath of the inauguration, the new federal administration introduced a series of executive orders targeting transgender youth.

These orders prohibited gender-affirming medical care for minors, penalized schools that supported transgender students, and barred transgender girls from competing in gender-aligned sports. The study, led by Princeton University psychologist Rachel A. Leshin, compared the mental health trajectories of transgender and cisgender youth alongside their parents.

The researchers observed widening mental health gaps between the two groups of parents. Prior to the election, parents of transgender youth and cisgender youth reported comparable levels of depression and positive emotions. However, post-inauguration, parents of transgender youth exhibited significantly higher depression and lower positive emotions than their cisgender counterparts.

Similarly, anxiety levels diverged, with parents of transgender youth experiencing a more than doubled increase in anxiety post-election compared to their cisgender peers. The researchers ruled out voting behavior and participants' own gender identity as potential factors, as these analyses yielded consistent patterns independent of these variables.

In a subsequent eight-week tracking period, parents of transgender youth consistently exhibited rising anxiety and depression levels, while parents of cisgender youth showed no significant changes. To discern the underlying reasons for these disparities, the researchers examined parental worry and perceived social support. Their exploratory analysis indicated that heightened parental concern for their children's well-being may account for the divergent mental health outcomes.

Notably, despite both groups reporting high levels of social support, this support did not mitigate the distress associated with the new political climate. When analyzing the youth themselves, the researchers found subtle differences in their mental health trajectories post-inauguration, with transgender youth experiencing a decline in positive emotions while cisgender youth's anxiety decreased.

The parents' open-ended responses revealed a tendency to explicitly mention transgender-related issues and express more severe negative emotions compared to the youth. Statements such as "I have cried almost every day this past week" and "Every week is a new wave of fear, frustration, and utter disbelief" were common among parents of transgender youth.

The authors propose that parents may be more attuned to long-term threats than adolescents, contributing to the pronounced mental health declines observed in their sample.