are the parents doing these kids a favor by letting them transition at a younger age considering the frontal cortex isn't fully developed until 25? there are also plenty of stories of he then she then back to he again.. some kids, probably most are trying to find themselves at that age.
I think they absolutely are when it comes to social transition. Medical transition should be (and is) more carefully considered but there is quite a bit of study supporting puberty suppression to give them more time. Still, most kids aren't trying to find their gender identity as adolescents/teens even if they are trying to "find themselves".
Could be the case, have their been studies on that? I could see a kid being confused with what sexually arouses them at that pivotal age maybe homosexual thoughts and then with thinking that way believing that they should've been born the other sex.
I didn't read the links rusty posted but I'm going to post personally about this. Anyone who has been on this board for more than about 20 minutes knows I talk about my kids, a lot. Many people on this board have met one or two of my children. What no one knows on this board, well until now, is that my oldest child have been struggling with her gender identity for a few years now. What I can tell you for a lock stock fact is that children with gender identity issues have no thoughts about sex or sexual attraction. It's about how they feel about themselves. I know this about my child and about other children with gender identity issues I've been around.
I've also told the story of the youngest transgender kid I've been around and it was a 6 year old boy, born a girl. I don't have that job anymore but I can tell you that kid, at least 6-10 years old, didn't have a single thought about who he was attracted to.
We don't know what's going to happen with our daughter. She was born our daughter and she remains our daughter, until she decides being our daughter isn't what she wants anymore. We have open communication with her, like the day she came home and told us she was androgynous and we had to explain to her what that means. She really didn't know, it was something one of her friends said.
The irony in all of this, especially with trans children is that our society's insistence on assigning gender roles to a kid, even before they are born, even with names, all of our kids have very gender specific names, certainly can't help kids when it comes to gender identity. We tell our kids how they should think and what they should like, is it any surprise that a kid who doesn't confirm to our norms is confused about who they are?