iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

There's something about a Japanese mascot ( @chiitan.love) liking my post that delights the hell out of me ありがとうございます！

Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

Rather, we don’t have enough information to actually say how many transgender and gender diverse youth persist in their identity—whether one eyeballs the literature and blogs about it, or conducts a formal meta-analysis. The dataset is too small and inconsistent to yield informative guidance (23)

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

This pathologizing lens was so omnipresent that one study argued that liking the spice girls was evidence of “gender dysphoria”, and that the boy in question should be encouraged to “grow out of” (19)

From Singh's dissertation, a child makes the claim that it would be better to be a girl because they have better bands, such as the Spice Girls

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

We also have to look at the underlying assumptions that went into each study’s data collection. Out of the 11 studies commonly cited in favor of “desistance,” 7 collected data under the assumption that effeminacy in boys was a risk factor for “transsexualism,” and should be stopped (18)

An example of the pathologization of femininity from Zuger's work

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

Labeling kids who were put into therapy for not being masculine or feminine enough without actual cross-gender identification as trans, while counting all participants who dropped out as “desisters” has a serious impact on the data (17)

A note from Singh's dissertation work (which was later turned into a 2021 paper) demonstrating that some youth did not explicitly endorse the desire to be the opposite sex

A quote from Steensma et al (2013) suggesting that not all youth explicitly expressed cross-gender identification

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

Coherent literatures don't behave this way. Literatures containing strong evidence contain relatively stable signal. Subgroups of studies may behave differently, but it shouldn’t be the case that *any* number goes or that small disagreements about inclusion/exclusion decisions change everything (15)

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

We carried out different sensitivity analyses, which continued to show how fickle the desistance literature is: different assumptions about volunteer bias, publication bias, and/or inclusion/exclusion decisions change the results considerably (14)

GOSH plots of estimates and heterogeneity for studies included in the expanded set of studies

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

We were astounded to find that meta-analytic prediction intervals from original sample of 11 articles supported ridiculously wide ranges of desistance (37% - 100%) and persistence (0% - 80%). The range for both expands to 0% - 100% (and beyond) when the new articles are included. (11)

Table 2 from the article demonstrates a wide range of possible desistance and persistence rates

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

The late Dr. Scott Lilienfeld wrote about the problem of drop out/missing data, in his well-known paper on “Psychological Treatments that Cause Harm”, and how we can mislead ourselves if we base analyses only on those “completers” who were present at all times of assessment (8)

Psychological Treatments That Cause Harm, but Scott O. Lillenfield

Lillenfield notes that "psychotherapies that are harmful may yield high rates of premature client termination (drop-outs).

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

Importantly, we are not the first to question the numbers behind desistance claims. In trans circles, it’s called the “Desistance Myth.” Other scholars (esp. Temple-Newhook et al., 2018, Ashley, 2019; Serano; Winters) have questioned the relevance and accuracy of the data behind these claims (5)

The clinical irrelevance of "desistance" research for transgender and gender creative youth, written by Florence Ashley

A critical commentary on follow-up studies and "desistance" theories about transgender and gender-nonconforming children by Newhook et al.

The "80% Desistance" Dictum: Is it Science?, by Kelly Winters

Detransition, Desistance, and Disinformation: A guide for Understanding Transgender Children Debates, by Julia Serano

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

The widespread desistance claim and 60-90% range is featured *everywhere*. It’s in bills banning gender-affirming care in the U.S., it’s in the Cass Review... it’s even in the DSM-5-TR! It’s a main pillar of arguments against medical transition (3)

A screenshot from the Cass review related to desistance

A screenshot from the DSM-5-TR discussing persistence rates

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

When trans kids are discussed, folks often claim that 60-90% stop being trans. Previously accepted as fact, this desistance rate was repopularized by a blogpost summarizing 11 studies which were described as reaching a “remarkably similar conclusion” despite their methodological differences. (2)

Screenshot of a post on the blog "Sexology Today!" that makes the claim that 60-90% of transgender youth stop identifying as transgender

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/04/2026

New publication alert! After four years of analysis, synthesis, and careful writing, I am pleased to announce a brand-new article, “Desistance”: A Multimethod Review of the Literature on Gender Identity Variability in Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth (1) 🧵 psycnet.apa.org/record/2027-...

An image of the article "Desistance": A Multimethod Review of the Literature on Gender Identity Variability in Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 06/08/2025

Some folks go to conference host cities early to sightsee. I go early to visit the local roller derby league

Roller Derby gear packed in a carry on luggage suitcase

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 08/07/2025

One month left! Who is coming to my invited talk at APA? #APA2025

A screenshot of the APA division 8 email encouraging individuals to attend the division's invited talks on August 8th. At 11:30 AM Mountain Time, Dr. Catherine Wall will be presenting her talk "Examining the broader implication of research on transgender and gender diverse issues."

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 14/05/2025

I am incredibly excited to share my work in a couple months at #APA2025 in Denver, CO. In this talk, I will be demonstrating how understanding issues that face minoritized populations (such as trans folks) can help us better understand issues that face the individuals broadly

The title of an upcoming talk at the annual conference for the American Psychological Association. The title reads, "From the specific to the general: Examining transgender and gender diverse issues can provide broader understanding of health, misinformation, and policy

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 09/04/2025

Funnily, I never broke 1k followers in the Bad Place I'm so happy to have you all with me, and I can't wait to share my upcoming research (and eventually job outcomes) with you all

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 27/03/2025

It looks like it was a slightly different source -- the words are slightly different, but the meaning is the same. I'm not sure where Rabbi Ahuva sourced it from exactly, or where it caught her eye

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 21/03/2025

Let's start here: On Wednesday, I successfully defended my dissertation. In setting up my dissertation work, I learned a whole new subfield of literature on misinformation because it was a topic that I felt was important. And I am proud of the work that I did.

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 04/12/2024

My coworker is sleeping on the job again...

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 29/11/2024

How much support does my dog need to provide me before I list her as a co-author on a paper? She's one of my favorite colleagues (she is my Paw-league, if you will)

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 02/01/2024

As many of you know, I launched my job search this year. When a cis person thinks about jobs, they have the opportunity to select from so many states. While I *could* apply for jobs in all 50 states, I can only be somewhat confident that I will be safe in around half of them (x-post from bird site)

A map of the USA with differing ratings of danger of anti-trans laws

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 19/12/2023

This feels like it should be a shitpost, but it isn't. And it's also so true

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 18/10/2023

As many of you may know, I am in the middle of the soft launch of my job search. There are so many positions out there this year that look so lovely! That said, it has some interesting (and very familiar) vibes for this former musical theater kid...

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Dr. Catherine Wall @catherinesjwall.com · 24/09/2023

(Source: www.etsy.com/shop/Critter...)

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