Is Gender Identity Disorder in Children a Mental Disorder?

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  Dec, 2000  by Nancy H. Bartlett,  Paul L. Vasey,  William M. Bukowski

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Only a very few children with GID continue to have GID as adolescents or adults (Green, 1987; Zuger, 1984; see Zucker, 1985, for a review). No diagnostic signs have been identified to distinguish those children who will, from those who will not, go on to adolescent or adult outcomes of GID (Money & Lehne, 1993). For those children who will go on to be diagnosed with GID in adolescence or adulthood, there may be an increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom. Adolescents or adults, especially males, with GID are at increased risk for such negative outcomes as physical abuse, school drop-out, drug and alcohol addiction, prostitution, AIDS, and poverty (Seil, 1996). Rejected by peers and often their own families, adolescents with GID may be caught in a downward spiral similar to that which is found among other adolescents who have suffered rejection (see Kupersmidt, Coie, & Dodge, 1990, for a review). Again, the problem of direct causation versus mere association becomes relevant; the mere association of a condition with increased risk should not be sufficient for that condition to be considered a mental disorder.

Does GID Represent Dysfunction in the Individual (Sentence [3])?