Gender-affirming psychiatry: a minority stress and phenomenological framework for child and adolescent mental health

Abstract

This perspective article introduces Gender Affirming Psychiatry (GAP), a conceptual framework that integrates queer phenomenology, the gender minority stress model, and gender-affirming care to guide psychiatric assessment, formulation, and treatment of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth. This approach acknowledges the cultural and institutional structures that negatively impact the mental health of gender diverse youth, while leveraging resilience, community connection, and support structures that are known to improve mental health outcomes. In this time of greater awareness and increased scrutiny, GAP is a practical, person-centered approach that is clinically sound and ethically grounded.