Gender Identity and Mental Health Symptom Severity Among Adolescents Admitted to an Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital

Transgender youth are at an increased risk of suicide, substance use, experiencing violent assaults, and reporting major depressive episodes and greater psychological distress compared to their cisgender counterparts. This study examined mental health symptom severity in adolescents admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital who wished they were of a different gender compared to those who did not. A group of 180 adolescents admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital completed assessments to measure mental health symptom severity at admission. Gender diverse (n = 90) and cisgender (n = 90) groups were established. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine between group (gender diverse vs. cisgender) difference on depression, anxiety, suicide risk, nighttime sleep quality, and emotion regulation problems. Results revealed significant differences in emotion regulation difficulties at admission, specifically in nonacceptance and awareness. There were no significant differences on measures of depression, anxiety, suicide risk, and nighttime sleep quality at admission. This study is one of the first to measure mental health symptom severity in gender diverse adolescents while admitted to an inpatient psychiatric setting. Adolescents in the gender diverse group had significantly higher level of difficulty with emotion regulation, which may indicate an increased risk of developing psychiatric symptoms such as depression and anxiety. This paper demonstrates the importance of using targeted interventions to address difficulties with emotion regulation in at-risk adolescents.