Gender Diversity on the rise in High School

Results from a gender diversity study of high school students was published in the May 2021 issue of Pediatrics. The respondents were 3,168 students from 13 different Public schools in Pittsburgh. The results indicated that the number of teens who identify outside of the straight cisgender spectrum is five times higher than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previous estimate. Researchers discovered gender diversity is more prevalent than previously thought. In 2017, the CDC released a study asking students “are you transgender?” leaving 1.8 percent of individuals to respond “yes.”

An adolescent medicine fellow, Dr. Kacie Kidd at the University of Pittsburgh was the lead author of the gender diversity study. Kidd believed that if they rephrase the question about their gender, the results should indicate a higher number of gender diverse students. The study asked students a two-part question. The first asked what sex they were given or assigned to at birth. The second question allowed them to choose the word or words that best described them. They were given a plethora of options to choose from, including “non-binary,” “gender queer,” “trans girl,” “trans boy,” “girl,” “boy,” and “another identity.”

The respondents’ results indicated that 9.2 percent of high schoolers perceived themselves as gender diverse. Dr. Kidds beliefs were found to be correct, that when students were given a broader spectrum of options to self identify, the results would increase with a higher number of gender-diverse-identifying students. 

Kidd says of the results, “Our goal was to understand the prevalence of gender-diverse identities among high school students in our Pittsburgh school district by asking what we considered to be, and what many scholars consider to be, a more inclusive question about gender identity.” She adds, “We came in suspecting that this two-step gender identity question would demonstrate a higher prevalence of gender diversity than in prior studies.”