A research paper submitted to the Springer Nature journal Archives of Sexual Behavior has been retracted by the publication after vigorous protests from some researchers.
The article, titled “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases,” was written by a Northwestern University psychology professor, Michael Bailey, and the head of Parents of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria Kids, Suzanna Diaz.
The paper surveyed more than 1,500 parents about their experiences of caring for children and young adults who have transitioned. It details “rapid onset gender dysphoria,” a “controversial theory” that “common cultural beliefs, values, and preoccupations cause some adolescents (especially female adolescents) to attribute their social problems, feelings, and mental health issues to gender dysphoria.”
There’s nothing radical or revolutionary in this thesis. It mirrors what several researchers in Europe have already found. Not all cases of rapid-onset gender dysphoria are due to social contagion. But many are. And it’s critical to get answers about why so many young girls — by a 2 to 1 margin compared to boys — want to change their gender.
“The vitally important question of how best to help gender-dysphoric youth, whose numbers have sharply increased, is one of the most urgent questions in medicine today,” Mr. Bailey wrote in a letter to the Springer publishers, objecting to the retraction. “We must promote such ground-breaking research, not quash it.”
“To silence the critical conversation around gender issues will result in harm to Springer’s important position as a source for fair, unbiased publication of scholarly articles addressing the urgent gender issues facing society today,” he wrote in his letter to the publishers.
Why the retraction from Springer? Apparently, the authors failed to get the “informed consent” that is necessary for publishing such data.
“The Publisher and the Editor-in-Chief have retracted this article due to non-compliance with our editorial policies around consent,” the publisher wrote in a retraction notice. “The participants of the survey have not provided written informed consent to participate in scholarly research or to have their responses published in a peer-reviewed article. Additionally, they have not provided consent to publish to have their data included in this article.”
That sounds like a genuine objection, although how that would contaminate or invalidate the research itself isn’t mentioned.
Following the survey of parents, Mr. Bailey and Ms. Diaz analyzed the research findings in order to come to the determination that ROGD is “a socially contagious syndrome” spread mostly online between disaffected or mentally ill adolescents and young adults. The authors note that “these youths were disproportionately (75 percent) natal female,” meaning born female.
During their research, the authors found that there were social and institutional pressures placed on parents after their children began exhibiting signs of gender dysphoria. “Parents reported that they had often felt pressured by clinicians to affirm their adolescent or young adult child’s new gender and support their transition. According to the parents, adolescent and young adult children’s mental health deteriorated considerably after social transition.”
The scientific objections to the paper refer to the methodology used. “One behavioral and social scientist at Brown University, Arjee Javellana Restar, for example, published criticism of Ms. Littman’s study arguing that sampling parents from these sites and not contacting the children themselves compromised the study’s results,” according to The Sun.
Related: American Gender Physicians Need to Think More Like Their European Counterparts
I understand the reticence of Springer Nature and other scientific journals in publishing papers like this. Although in this instance, retracting the paper was probably the only option, the research itself raises several disturbing questions that aren’t going to go away just because the authors didn’t get the subjects studied to sign a consent form.