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Understanding Nonbinary and Gender Diverse Youth

Nonbinary gender identities are prominent among gender diverse youth, having increased significantly over the last decade. Leading theories in support of gender diversity argue that greater acceptance, the availability of more descriptive and inclusive language, and diverse sociocultural forces are behind the apparent rise in transgender youth.

Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health is inviting submissions for a special issue on Understanding Nonbinary and Gender Diverse Youth. Articles should focus on attempts to deepen our understanding of non-binary gender identity, and we welcome manuscripts of diverse methods including quantitative and qualitative clinical research, as well as systematic approaches to reviews. We also encourage submissions from gender diverse researchers whose personal experiences provide invaluable insights in the study of this area.

The goal of the special issue is to expand our understanding of gender diversity, and manuscripts that aim to repudiate or pathologize gender identities are not suitable for this issue. We discourage single case studies, personal narratives, essays, and commentaries. On the other hand, qualitative papers exploring the gender narratives of nonbinary youth will be of interest, and quantitative studies addressing mental health and access challenges to gender-affirmative care will be prioritized.

Interested authors are welcome to reach out to the guest editor, Dr. Jame Agapoff (they/them), at JAgapoff@dop.hawaii.edu, to propose a manuscript and receive some initial input on suitability for this special issue. Submissions will be considered through 2023.



  1. Gender dysphoria (GD) is characterized by the incongruence between one’s experienced and expressed gender and assigned-sex-at-birth; it is associated with clinically significant distress. In recent years, the ...

    Authors: Elisa Marconi, Laura Monti, Angelica Marfoli, Georgios D. Kotzalidis, Delfina Janiri, Cecilia Cianfriglia, Federica Moriconi, Stefano Costa, Chiara Veredice, Gabriele Sani and Daniela Pia Rosaria Chieffo
    Citation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2023 17:110
  2. Gender-diverse young people experience a cisnormative world and are subject to unique minority stressors, which have been found to contribute to adverse mental health. This research aims to understand the soci...

    Authors: Daisy Haywood, María de Andrés, Una Masic and Polly Carmichael
    Citation: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health 2023 17:85