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In early 2025, the reality for transgender youth shifted in the United States after a deluge of executive orders from the president directly threatened and restricted rights for the demographic. Transgender youth already face increased mental health distress compared to their peers, so did these events further worsen their mental health? And how did they affect their parents?

New research from Psychological Science showed that in the months following the 2025 U.S. presidential inauguration, political actions against trans people took a toll on the parents of transgender children, including sharp increases in depression and anxiety. "Our findings identify an immediate potential cost of the current political environment for supportive parents of transgender youth," the study's authors wrote.

For these findings, researchers used survey data from 73 transgender and 87 cisgender children, as well as their respective parents, from 2022 to 2024. Data included weekly surveys that researchers administered in the seven weeks after the 2025 inauguration. The survey asked questions related to the participants' demographics and gender identity, as well as their mental health and well-being, measuring depression, anxiety and positive affect (one's internal confidence and happiness).

In their analysis, the researchers found that prior to the 2024 presidential election and 2025 presidential inauguration, parents of both transgender and cisgender children had similar levels of depression and positive affect. But after the election, and especially after the inauguration, researchers observed a marked increase in depression and drop in positive affect for parents with transgender children.

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