Female, male, I don’t identify myself. The third option was chosen by 3.6% of the large sample of adolescents who participated in the large national survey on the lifestyles of teenagers living in Italy, 2024 edition, carried out by Laboratorio adolescenza and Istituto di ricerca Iard with the operational support of Mediatyche Srl, on 3,427 students between 13 and 19 years old, representative of the national territory.
The inclusion of the option ‘I do not identify with myself’ in the responses on gender provided by the survey was “a request – the authors of the study explain – that was made to us, through their teachers, by the children themselves, but that we had not accepted for last year’s surveys, discouraged by some school principals who feared ‘reactions’ from increasingly intrusive parents. This year we decided to include the option ‘I do not identify with myself’ which was chosen by a minority, but significant 3.6%. An option of freedom that seeks, in its own small way, to contribute to making an existing and widespread condition return to normality”.
“An important opportunity, offered to adolescents, and an interesting fact to record – says Piernicola Garofalo, endocrinologist, former president of the Italian Society of Adolescent Medicine – which probably, comparing similar studies carried out in the USA, still underestimates the reality. Our primary interest as doctors and educators must be to give young people (but not only them, obviously) the opportunity to serenely express the perception they have of their identity with all the nuances and uncertainties that characterize this path, to help them and support them in the most appropriate way if and when there is a need. The mistake we must not make is to ignore the phenomenon or hypocritically try to hide it, because it would be an unforgivable oversight”.
#Health #Male #Female #Teens #Identify #Gender
