A therapeutic group for young people with diverse gender identifications.

Young people are presenting to specialist gender services in higher numbers than before and many with significant psychosocial difficulties. Negative experiences of stigma, difficult peer relationships and discrimination exacerbate distress and psychological difficulties, negatively impacting wellbeing and resilience. Social support is advocated as a means of supporting young people with diverse gender identifications, such as through peer support groups. This article describes the establishment of a young persons' group in 2011 within the United Kingdom's Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), for those attending the service as a means of enabling their coping with difficult experiences and facilitating their wellbeing and resilience through effective social support. The group was evaluated using qualitative and quantitative measures and has subsequently run each year. Now in its sixth year, the authors reflect on their learning and experiences.

Young people with features of gender dysphoria: Demographics and associated difficulties.

This article presents the findings from a cross-sectional study on demographic variables and associated difficulties in 218 children and adolescents (Mean age = 14 years, SD = 3.08, range = 5-17 years), with features of gender dysphoria, referred to the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) in London during a 1-year period (1 January 2012-31 December 2012). Data were extracted from patient files (i.e. referral letters, clinical notes and clinician reports). The most commonly reported associated difficulties were bullying, low mood/depression and self-harming. There was a gender difference on some of the associated difficulties with reports of self-harm being significantly more common in the natal females and autism spectrum conditions being significantly more common in the natal males. The findings also showed that many of the difficulties increased with age. Findings regarding demographic variables, gender dysphoria, sexual orientation and family features are reported, and limitations and implications of the cross-sectional study are discussed. In conclusion, young people with gender dysphoria often present with a wide range of associated difficulties which clinicians need to take into account, and our article highlights the often complex presentations of these young people.

Psychological Support, Puberty Suppression, and Psychosocial Functioning in Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria.

INTRODUCTION: Puberty suppression by gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs (GnRHa) is prescribed to relieve the distress associated with pubertal development in adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD) and thereby to provide space for further exploration. However, there are limited longitudinal studies on puberty suppression outcome in GD. Also, studies on the effects of psychological support on its own on GD adolescents' well-being have not been reported. AIM: This study aimed to assess GD adolescents' global functioning after psychological support and puberty suppression. METHODS: Two hundred one GD adolescents were included in this study. In a longitudinal design we evaluated adolescents' global functioning every 6 months from the first visit. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All adolescents completed the Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale (UGDS), a self-report measure of GD-related discomfort. We used the Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) to assess the psychosocial functioning of adolescents. RESULTS: At baseline, GD adolescents showed poor functioning with a CGAS mean score of 57.7 ± 12.3. GD adolescents' global functioning improved significantly after 6 months of psychological support (CGAS mean score: 60.7 ± 12.5; P < 0.001). Moreover, GD adolescents receiving also puberty suppression had significantly better psychosocial functioning after 12 months of GnRHa (67.4 ± 13.9) compared with when they had received only psychological support (60.9 ± 12.2, P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Psychological support and puberty suppression were both associated with an improved global psychosocial functioning in GD adolescents. Both these interventions may be considered effective in the clinical management of psychosocial functioning difficulties in GD adolescents.

Brief Report: Autistic Features in Children and Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria.

This paper looks at the association between gender dysphoria (GD), scores on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and reported diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents of 166 young people presenting with GD (Mean age = 14.26, SD = 2.68) completed the SRS. Information concerning an ASD diagnosis was also extracted from the patient files. 45.8% fell within the normal range on the SRS and of those 2.8% had an ASD diagnosis. 27.1% fell within the mild/moderate range and of those 15.6% had an ASD diagnosis and 6.7% an ASD query. 27.1% fell within the severe range and of those 24.4% had an ASD diagnosis and 26.7% an ASD query. No difference was found in autistic features between the natal females and males.

Families changing families: the protective function of multi-family therapy for children in education.

The Marlborough Family Education Centre (MFEC) uses a specific multi-family group approach with families where children exhibit (primarily) conduct problems and function poorly in school. Research indicates that failure to intervene with these children carries great potential cost to both the family and society. Outcomes for 50 families receiving intervention from the MFEC were compared with a control group of 28 who had access to a range of interventions, but not the multi-family group approach pioneered by the MFEC. Data on child and family social, emotional and behavioural functioning were collected at the point of referral, and at 6 and 12 months. Parents of children receiving support from the MFEC reported statistically and clinically significant improvements in their children that were maintained at 12 months whereas there was no change in the control group. In addition, measures of family functioning were fairly stable for the MFEC group, while the control group showed significant deterioration over the same time period. Other results were not significant. These findings are interpreted within the context of early intervention. The methodological limitations of the study are considered and suggestions for future research are outlined.

Measuring empathizing and systemizing with a large US sample.

A large number of people completed one of two versions of the empathizing quotient (EQ) and systemizing quotient (SQ). One version had the negatively phrased items all re-worded. These re-worded items were answered more rapidly than the original items, and for the SQ produced a more reliable scale. Subjects gave self-assessments of empathizing and systemizing, and these were moderately correlated, r ≈ .6, with their respective quotients. Females had on average higher empathizing scores and males had on average higher systemizing scores. If a female-male pair was chosen at random, the female would have the higher empathizing score about two-thirds of the time, and the males would have the higher systemizing score about two-thirds of the time.

Functions for traditional and multilevel approaches to signal detection theory.

In the present article, functions written in the freeware R are presented that calculate several measures from traditional signal detection theory for each individual in a sample, along with summary statistics for the sample. Bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap confidence intervals are also produced. Arguments are made for using an alternative approach--multilevel generalized linear models--and a function is presented for it. These functions are part of the R package sdtalt, which is available on the Comprehensive R Archive Network. Recent data from memory recognition studies are used to illustrate these functions.

Sibling differentials in power and memory conformity.

How much a person conforms to another person's memory report can depend on the power and credibility of this person, even if these factors are manipulated by the experimenter. The aim of the current study was to establish whether memory conformity is also affected by power in pairs involving natural power differentials, in this case siblings. Pairs of adult siblings were shown 50 photographs of faces and then given a recognition test where one partner had to answer before the other. The findings showed that what one sibling reported affected what the other one reported. Contrary to our expectations, however, there was no significant difference in conformity between the younger and the older sibling. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The co-witness misinformation effect: memory blends or memory compliance?

For 30 years hundreds of researchers have shown participants videos and slide-sequences of events, presented the participants with misleading information, and found that this misinformation distorted their memories. The purpose of this study was to establish whether those misled participants are reporting a memory blend of the two sources of information or whether they are simply complying with the post-event information. A total of 92 participants were shown one of two versions of six different videos, which included some subtle differences. After having watched each video individually, participants were paired with someone who had seen the other version and they discussed the clips together. They then individually answered questions about the videos, and their responses showed that some of the distorted memories were blends of the original information and the post-event information. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Examining mixed unknown distributions (mud).

A function, written in R, for testing whether the distribution of responses in one condition can be considered a combination of the distributions from two other conditions is described. The important aspect of this function is that it does not make any assumptions about the shape of the distributions. It is based o nthe Kolmogorov-Smirnov D statistic. The function also allows the user to test more specific and, hence, more statistically powerful hypotheses. One hypothesis, that the mixture does not capture the middle third of the distribution, is included as a built-in option, and code is provided so that other alternatives can easily be run. A power analysis reveals that the function is most likely to detect a difference between the combined conditions' distribution and the other distribution when the center of the other distribution is near the midpoint of the two original distributions. Critical p values are estimated for each set of distributions, using bootstrap methods. An example from human memory research, exploring the blending hypothesis of the misinformation effect, is used for illustrative purposes.

Postidentification feedback affects real eyewitnesses.

Many studies of simulated eyewitness situations have shown that under certain laboratory conditions, people's confidence about their identifications predicts their accuracy, but that their reported confidence can be affected by telling them that they chose the suspect. In this study, eyewitnesses (n= 134) to real crimes took part in lineups at an identification suite in the United Kingdom and were asked questions about their memory both before and after they were told whether they had identified the suspect or a filler. Before the eyewitnesses were told whether they had identified the suspect or a filler, their responses to several questions reliably differentiated between those who identified the suspect and those who identified a filler. In addition, responses to the memory questions were affected by telling the eyewitnesses whether or not they had identified the suspect. These results show that postidentification feedback affects real eyewitnesses and highlight the importance of recording meta-memory variables before an eyewitness discovers whether he or she has identified the suspect.

Social recognition memory: the effect of other people's responses for previously seen and unseen items.

When people discuss their memories, what one person says can influence what another person reports. In 3 studies, participants were shown sets of stimuli and then given recognition memory tests to measure the effect of one person's response on another's. The 1st study (n = 24) used word recognition with participant-confederate pairs and found that the effect of confederate responses on participant responses was larger for previously unseen items than for previously seen items (omega(p) = .23). This finding was replicated in the 2nd study, which used photographs of cars (n = 24). In the 3rd study (n = 54), which used photographs of faces with participant pairs, the effect was also larger for unseen items. Results indicate that people rely more on other people's memories for unremembered objects than for remembered objects. This is important for both theories of memory and applications (e.g., witnesses talking, students studying together).