Apr 21, 2026 09:35 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1124753
INTRO: Gender-diverse adolescents who experience bullying and live in states with persistently unsupportive gender identity laws are significantly more likely to suffer escalating psychological distress compared to their peers, according to new research by UCLA Health.
The findings, published in JAMA Network, draw on one of the largest, most comprehensive adolescent brain development studies in the U.S. The study results suggest that the mental health burden carried by gender-diverse youth is not an inherent consequence of gender diversity but rather is shaped by the social and political environments in which these young people live.
“What we're seeing is that stigma has measurable neuropsychiatric consequences,” said the study’s senior author Carrie Bearden, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the UCLA Brain Research Institute. “Bullying and unsupportive legislation are not abstract policy concerns; they translate into real and serious symptoms in adolescents' day-to-day lives.”
Specifically, researchers found that gender-diverse teens reported higher rates of subtle but clinically meaningful warning signs of psychological stress. These experiences, known clinically as psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), are subtle, distressing internal experiences such as feeling unusually suspicious of others, thinking others are talking or laughing at them, feeling threatened or hearing sounds others do not. PLEs are not clinical psychosis. However, if untreated, these experiences can lead to increased risk of developing mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, self-harming behavior and psychotic disorder... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Gender-diverse adolescents who experience bullying and live in states with persistently unsupportive gender identity laws are significantly more likely to suffer escalating psychological distress compared to their peers, according to new research by UCLA Health.
The findings, published in JAMA Network, draw on one of the largest, most comprehensive adolescent brain development studies in the U.S. The study results suggest that the mental health burden carried by gender-diverse youth is not an inherent consequence of gender diversity but rather is shaped by the social and political environments in which these young people live.
“What we're seeing is that stigma has measurable neuropsychiatric consequences,” said the study’s senior author Carrie Bearden, a professor of psychiatry at the UCLA Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the UCLA Brain Research Institute. “Bullying and unsupportive legislation are not abstract policy concerns; they translate into real and serious symptoms in adolescents' day-to-day lives.”
Specifically, researchers found that gender-diverse teens reported higher rates of subtle but clinically meaningful warning signs of psychological stress. These experiences, known clinically as psychotic-like experiences (PLEs), are subtle, distressing internal experiences such as feeling unusually suspicious of others, thinking others are talking or laughing at them, feeling threatened or hearing sounds others do not. PLEs are not clinical psychosis. However, if untreated, these experiences can lead to increased risk of developing mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, self-harming behavior and psychotic disorder... (MORE - details)