TTFN Project
Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project
Research Team
Staff & Trainees
Eli Godwin
R. Korkodilos
Even Paglisotti
Collaborators
Stephanie Budge
Emmett Line
Kate Thomson
Scientific Advisory Board
Bryn Austin
Laura Bogart
Diane Ehrensaft
Roberta Goldman
Annie Pullen Sansfacon
Milagros Rosal
Community Partners
Melissa MacNish
Michelle Forcier
Ralph Vetters
Harvard CFAR Community Advisory Board
Fenway Youth Community Advisory Board
Greater Boston PFLAG
TransLate Gender
Camp Aranu'tiq
Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth
Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition
Effie Molina, LGBT Liaisons, Massachusetts Department of Children and Families
PFLAG Hartford
Parents of Transgender * Kids Facebook page
Trans Youth Equality Foundation
The goals of the TTFN Project are to 1) examine how the family environment affects the health and wellbeing of transgender and nonbinary youth, and 2) develop a family-level intervention to support families with transgender and nonbinary youth.
Funding
The TTFN Project is funded by a K99R00 grant from NIH and a grant from the Boston Children’s Hospital Aerosmith Endowment Fund for Prevention and Treatment of AIDS and HIV Infections, both awarded to Dr. Katz-Wise.
Current Status
We have finished data collection and intervention development and are continuing to analyze data and write manuscripts.
If you are interested in collaborating on a project using data from the TTFN Project, please visit this page.
More About the TTFN Project
TTFN Longitudinal Study
The TTFN Project began with a 2-year longitudinal mixed methods study of transgender and nonbinary teens and their families.
TTFN Intervention Development
Based on findings from the TTFN Longitudinal Study, the team created the TTFN Conversation Toolkit, an online toolkit to support families with transgender and nonbinary teens in having conversations about the teen’s gender identity. The team pilot tested the toolkit with transgender and nonbinary teens and their families.
Our team developed the TTFN Conversation Toolkit, a family-level intervention to support families with transgender and nonbinary youth. The toolkit includes digital stories created by transgender and nonbinary youth about their family experiences and discussion guides to help families have conversations about gender. The toolkit can be used by families with transgender and nonbinary youth on their own or with the support of a mental health provider.
Research Summaries
Our team is committed to sharing findings from our research with community members through brief non-academic summaries of the academic papers we've published.
TTFN Toolkit Development.pdfDevelopment of a Family-Level Intervention for Families with Transgender and/or Nonbinary Youth: Lessons and Recommendations
TTFN Sibling Summary 2024.pdfExperiences of Cisgender Youth with a Transgender and/or Nonbinary Sibling
TTFN Longitudinal Family Functioning 2024.pdfLongitudinal Family Functioning and Mental Health in Trans Youth and Their Families
TTFN Fam and Comm Exper of TNB Youth_FINAL.pdfFamily and Community Experiences of Transgender and/or Nonbinary Youth
TTFN FamBuilding Summary_FINAL.pdfFertility and Family Building Desires of Trans Teens
TTFN W 1-5 FamFunct_20210808_FINAL.pdfA Longitudinal Analysis of Family Functioning and Mental Health in Transgender Youth and Families
TTFN Sibling Summary_FINAL.pdfExperiences of Adolescent and Young Adult Siblings of Transgender and/or Nonbinary Youth
TTFN W1 Quant Fam Func MH Summary_FINAL.pdfFamily Functioning and Mental Health of Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Youth
Academic Articles
We have published many academic journal articles using data from the TTFN Project. If you would like to read any of the papers listed below and do not have access, please contact us with the paper title and we can send you the PDF.
We have additional articles in progress so please check back.
(From Newest to Oldest)
Godwin EG, Moore LBM, Katz-Wise SL. “You always worry about what other people think”: Experiences of anti-trans stigma among trans youth and their siblings in the northeastern US. Stigma and Health. 2024. Advance online publication. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/sah0000564
Katz-Wise SL, Godwin EG, Medzhitova Y, Moore LBM, Parsa N, Hill A, Oparah N, Bogart LM, Rosal MC, Pullen Sansfaçon A, Ehrensaft D, MacNish Nishman M, Austin SB. Development of a family-level intervention for families with transgender and/or nonbinary youth: Lessons and recommendations. Journal of Family Psychology. 2024. Advance online publication. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/fam0001262
Budge SL, Wachter E, Barburoğlu Y, Gao S, Dvorak D, Elliott G, Gilchrist S, Godwin EG, Katz-Wise SL. A longitudinal investigation of trans and nonbinary youth identity: individual processes and family agreement in the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Study. LGBTQ+ Family: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1080/27703371.2024.2357560
Godwin EG, Moore LM, Sansfaçon AP, Nishman MM, Rosal MC, Katz-Wise SL. Experiences of cisgender youth with a transgender and/or nonbinary sibling. Family Process. 2024; 63: 1025-1045. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12957
Katz-Wise SL, Sarda V, Line EC, Marchwinski B, Budge SL, Godwin EG, Moore LBM, Ehrensaft D, Rosal MC, Thomson KA. Longitudinal family functioning and mental health in transgender and nonbinary youth and their families. Journal of Child and Family Studies. 2024; 33: 1321-1335. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-023-02738-2
Katz-Wise SL, Godwin EG, Parsa N, Brown CA, Pullen Sansfaçon A, Goldman R, MacNish M, Rosal MC, Austin SB. Using family and ecological systems approaches to conceptualize family and community-based experiences of transgender and/or nonbinary youth from the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. 2022; 9: 21-36. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000442
Pletta DR, Kant JD, Ehrensaft D, MacNish M, Cahill S, Katz-Wise SL. The 2016 United States presidential election’s impact on families with transgender adolescents in New England. Journal of Family Psychology. 2022; 36, 23-34. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/fam0000873
Garcia Saiz E, Sarda V, Pletta DR, Reisner SL, Katz-Wise SL. Family functioning as a protective factor for sexual risk behaviors among gender minority adolescents. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2021; 50: 3023-3033. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02079-5
Katz-Wise SL, Sarda V, Austin SB, Harris SK. Longitudinal effects of gender minority stressors on substance use and related risk and protective factors among gender minority adolescents. PLOS ONE. 2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250500
Stark B, Nagle SA, Hunter A, Charlton BM, Katz-Wise SL. Family building desires among transgender and gender expansive adolescents: A longitudinal family-level analysis. International Journal of Transgender Health. 2021; 22: 425-439. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2021.1896410
Katz-Wise SL, Pullen Sansfaçon A, Bogart LM, Rosal MC, Ehrensaft D, Goldman RE, Austin SB. Lessons from a community-based participatory research study with transgender and gender nonconforming youth and their families. Action Research. 2019; 17: 186-207. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476750318818875
Katz-Wise SL, Ehrensaft D, Vetters R, Forcier M, Austin SB. Family functioning and mental health of transgender and gender nonconforming youth in the Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project. Journal of Sex Research. 2018; 55: 582-590. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2017.1415291