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Parents of transgender children experienced significant increases in depression and anxiety after President Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, according to research suggesting political actions affecting transgender youth may also take a psychological toll on their families.
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The study found that parents of transgender youth reported worsening mental health in the weeks following the inauguration, while parents of cisgender children experienced relatively little change.
Transgender youth showed fewer mental health changes during the same period, although they reported declining positive emotions and greater anxiety than their cisgender peers.
The findings, published in Psychological Science, come from a longitudinal study led by Rachel A. Leshin and colleagues that examined changes in mental health among transgender and cisgender adolescents and their parents before and after the 2025 presidential inauguration.
“Our findings identify an immediate potential cost of the current political environment for supportive parents of transgender youth,” the study’s authors wrote.
Parents Experienced a Sharp Decline in Mental Health
Researchers analyzed data from 160 adolescents ages 12 to 17, including 73 transgender and 87 cisgender youth, along with 167 parents.
Researchers collected survey data between 2022 and 2024, followed by weekly assessments during the seven weeks after the January 2025 inauguration.
Participants completed assessments measuring depression, anxiety, and positive affect, which refers to positive emotions such as happiness.
Before the 2024 presidential election, parents of transgender and cisgender children reported similar levels of depression and positive affect.
Following the election, and particularly after the inauguration, parents of transgender youth experienced increased depression, worsening anxiety, and declining positive emotions. By contrast, the mental health of parents of cisgender children remained relatively stable.
That difference was notable because parents in both groups generally shared similar political beliefs and attitudes toward the new administration.
Some parents directly attributed their emotional distress to political actions affecting transgender people.
“This past week has been one of the worst weeks I can recall,” one parent wrote shortly after the inauguration.
Another described experiencing “denial and grief.”
Why Parents May Experience Distress Before Their Children
The researchers offered one possible explanation for the differences between parents and children.
“Parents more often anticipate the longer-term threats,” the authors wrote.
Following the inauguration, the Trump administration issued executive orders targeting gender-affirming care for minors, school policies supporting transgender students, and participation by transgender girls in girls’ sports.
Researchers suggested that parents may have anticipated how these actions could affect their children’s access to healthcare, educational experiences, and exposure to discrimination.
However, the study does not establish that specific executive orders directly caused the reported mental health changes.
Transgender Youth Showed a Different Mental Health Pattern
Although their parents reported substantial emotional distress, transgender children did not experience similarly pronounced mental health changes during the study period.
Researchers found that transgender youth reported decreases in positive emotions in the weeks following the inauguration. They also experienced greater anxiety than cisgender youth after the inauguration.
The researchers suggested that the study’s timing may help explain why the children’s responses differed from their parents’.
“Transgender youths’ responses may reflect the reality that, in the time of our study, effects of executive orders had largely not been implemented,” they wrote.
The authors cautioned that the findings reflect a relatively short period following the inauguration. As policies are implemented and their consequences become clearer, mental health effects on transgender youth could become more apparent.
What the Findings Mean for Nurses
For nurses and other healthcare professionals, the findings suggest that assessing the emotional well-being of a young transgender patient may not fully capture the psychological challenges facing the family.
Although the study did not evaluate nursing interventions, concerns about healthcare access, discrimination, and uncertainty about the future may affect parents as well as their children.
These concerns may be particularly relevant for nurses working in pediatric care, primary care, behavioral health, and community health settings.
Parents may experience significant distress about their children’s safety, healthcare access, or future opportunities even when their children are not reporting comparable mental health changes.
Researchers Call for Longer-Term Studies
Researchers called for longer-term studies to determine whether parental mental health declines persist or worsen and how that distress may affect transgender youth.
Future research should include families representing a broader range of political beliefs, including parents who do not support their children’s gender identities, as well as more racially diverse and lower-income families.
The study’s relatively small sample and limited follow-up period mean its findings should not be generalized to all families of transgender children.
Still, the findings raise questions about how policies affecting transgender youth may influence the mental health of their families.
