Introduction: In the past decade, the medical community turned a spotlight to the pediatric transgender population. Physicians` perception of patients are known to effect care, yet pediatricians` perceptions of transgender were not previously assessed.
Objective: To evaluate pediatricians` perceptions of transgender people.
Methods: The previously validated “Transgender attitudes and beliefs scale” questionnaire was administered to pediatricians from multiple medical centers. We assessed perceptions in three domains: "Human value", “Interpersonal comfort” and “Sex\gender beliefs”. Answers, given on a seven point Likert scale were collapsed into two categories; a mean score of ≥6 for each domain was a "Favorable" perception, and <6 "Unfavorable".
Results: The cohort comprised of 355 pediatricians; 221(62%) females, 132(37%) males and 2 identified as "other"; 290(75%) were born in "trans-respect countries", 274(77%) identified as secular, 223(63%) were faculty, and 132(27%) residents.
Overall, 90% of the cohort scored favorably for the “Human value” domain, 68% scored favorably for “Interpersonal comfort” and 40% scored favorably for “Sex\gender beliefs”.
In the "Interpersonal comfort" domain: male gender, originating in transphobic countries, religious identification, and faculty, all significantly increased the odds ratio (OR) for an unfavorable score; 2.1(95%CI 1.3-3.4), 3.4(95%CI 1.9-6.3), 2.4(95%CI 1.4-4.2) and 1.8(95%CI 1.1-3.0) respectively. In the "Sex\gender beliefs" domain: male gender and religious identification had a significantly increased OR for unfavorable scores, 2.2(95% CI 1.3-3.5), 10.6(95% CI 4.7-24.1) respectively.
Conclusions: Our results show that negative perceptions of transgender people are still widespread among pediatricians. Interventions to change perceptions may further advance the health of the pediatric transgender population.
