Development and Psychometric Analysis of the Transgender Family Acceptance To Empowerment (TransFATE) Scale.

PURPOSE: Parent and caregiver support can reduce health disparities experienced by gender diverse youth (GDY). Parent and caregiver empowerment improves health outcomes for children with medical and mental health diagnoses, but no existing scale measures this construct in families of GDY. We aimed to develop a scale measuring empowerment in parents and caregivers of GDY. METHODS: We adapted two existing scales and added investigator-derived items to create a survey instrument. We revised using input from focus groups and experts assessing face and content validity. Using the revised scale, we surveyed parents and caregivers of GDY from across the U.S. to assess the construct validity through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, internal consistency, and convergent validity. RESULTS: The initial 67 items were reduced to 42 items after face and content validity analyses. Parents and caregivers (n = 309) from 31 states completed the revised measure. Most participants were white (81.4%), mothers (69.3%), and parenting a gender diverse child who identifies on the binary (transmasculine, male, transfeminine, or female; 91.3%). Exploratory factor analyses showed a two-factor solution: Factor 1 having 10 items (Cronbach's alpha = .86) and Factor 2 having six items (Cronbach's alpha = .86). Our confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated good fit (Comparative Factor Index = .972, Tucker-Lewis Index = .968, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = .060 [90% confidence interval = .410-.078], and Standardized Root Mean Square Residual = .062). CONCLUSIONS: The Transgender Family Acceptance To Empowerment (TransFATE) scale demonstrates face, content, and construct validity among a geographically diverse sample of GDY's parents and caregivers. This scale has the potential to aid in developing and evaluating programs focused on building stronger social supports for GDY through increased family empowerment.

EXPERIMENTAL HYBRIDIZATION OF XANTHIUM STRUMARIUM (COMPOSITAE) FROM ASIA AND AMERICA. I. RESPONSES OF F1 HYBRIDS TO PHOTOPERIOD AND TEMPERATURE.

Responses to photoperiod and temperature were compared for hybrids between Asiatic plants in the indigenous strumarium morphological complex and plants in five American complexes: oviforme, italicum, chinense, cavanillesii, and pennsylvancium. The F1 hybrids between Hong Kong plants and various American plants showed intermediacy in photoperiodic response; however, the hybrid night requirement was more similar to that of the American parent. The Hong Kong plants are difficult to evaluate photoperiodically but showed a night length requirement of 9.25-9.50 hr. Day-neutral plants from India in the strumarium complex produced day-neutral F1 hybrids in crosses with most American plants having night requirements less than 10 hr. The F1 hybrids involving the day-neutral Indian plants and either Indian or Australian chinense plants showed a night requirement of 8.25-8.75 hr. The chinense parental plants had apparent critical nights of 10.25-10.50 hr. Crosses between the day-neutral Indian plants and Mexican plants with apparent critical nights of 10.75-11 hr produced F1 hybrids requiring nights of 8.75-9.00 hr. The various hybrids tended to show the broader temperature tolerances of the American parents. The ripeness-to-flower (maturity) responses of seedlings tended to show the genetic controls of the parent with the faster developmental rate. The hybridization evidence suggests that photoperiodic responses are quantitatively controlled and inherited independently of morphology and ripeness-to-flower responses. The populations of India are highly diverse and probably reflect recombinations of photoperiodic and temperature responses between indigenous day-neutral plants and photoperiodic chinense plants introduced from North America.

Phenological Variation within Seven Transplanted Grassland Community Fractions from Texas and New Mexico.

Community fractions, consisting of population samples of Andropogon scoparius Michx., A. gerardii Vitman, Panicum virgatum L., and Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash, were transplanted to Austin, Texas, from six sites in Texas and one site in New Mexico. A behavioral gradient among the transplanted community fractions was correlated with the length of the growing period (over 300 to less than 200 days) and altitude (sea level to near 2,800 m) of origin. Late maturity characterized the populations from shorter growing periods and higher altitude. The population samples of 10 clones were compared in time of initial flowering with earlier samples of three clones taken from the same geographic area. Despite variations in site and year the gradient of mean flowering time was similar. The uniformity of flowering time and morphology within certain population samples of A. gerardii and P. virgatum suggested vegetative replication. Local differentiation was show in P. virgatum, caespitose (tetraploid) plants from a river bottom being later flowering than rhizomatous (octoploid) plants from an adjacent sandhill area. During an extended summer drought, the community fraction originating in central Texas showed selective superiority in the central Texas transplant habitat.