A review of research on the school climate of transgender middle and high schoolers: An ecological-transactional approach

Abstract

Research that aims to identify the characteristics of school climate for transgender middle and high school students is still a new domain. This narrative review of the literature attends to this gap by aggregating recent research on school protective factors which inform trans middle and high school students' school climate and relate to their wellness outcomes. The review was guided by the ecological-transactional model to capture the multi-dimensional quality of school climate, including overlapping levels of the environment that inform protection and risk, and students' perceptions navigating these spaces. More specifically, this framework was applied to help identify aspects of the school ecology that are theoretically salient features of school climate for transgender middle and high school students. Although most research that applies developmental systems is guided by minority stress theory, this review is guided by the gender affirmative model (GAM) to help highlight findings on protection within and between overlapping socio-ecological levels in the school ecology. Supportive faculty allies, peer support, and parent support emerge as strong protective factors at the micro-level. At the exo-level, school programming efforts that are proactive by prioritizing a discourse that nurtures agency for trans students show to be the most protective. There is some evidence that suggests proximal level indicators are more protective than distal level for transgender middle and high school students. The advantages of a multi-level approach to school climate for trans students are discussed.