Developing a Parenting Program for Mothers with Children with Gender Dysphoria and Examining Its Impact on the Resilience and Quality of the Parent-Child Relationship

The present study aimed to develop a parenting program for the mothers of children with gender dysphoria and investigate its impact on the resilience and quality of the parent-child relationship.

The research method was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test type, with a control group and follow-up. The statistical population consisted of mothers who were referred to the Psychiatric Center of Tehran in 2023 and had a child with gender dysphoria, of whom, 30 cases were selected in an available manner and randomly categorized into the experimental and control groups. Both groups were evaluated by means of a pre-test with the short-form resilience scale (2009) and the parent-child relationship assessment questionnaire (1983). The parenting program was taught to the experimental group; then, the post-test was carried out. After three months, a follow-up test was performed.

The data were analyzed by statistical method of variance with repeated measurements and Bonferroni's post-hoc test in SPSS software (version 23). The results showed that the developed program improved resilience and the quality of the parent-child relationship in mothers of children with gender dysphoria, and this improvement was maintained until the follow-up stage (P<0.05).

According to the obtained results, the prepared parenting program can help mothers of children with gender dysphoria increase their resilience and improve their relationships with their children. Therefore,  it is suggested to use this type of intervention to work with this group of mothers, which should be included in the agenda of psychologists and relevant organizations.