
Annie Pullen SansfaçonUniversité de Montréal | UdeM · School of Social Work
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon
Ph.D. Ethics, Social Work
About
145
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Introduction
Annie Pullen Sansfaçon is a Canada Research Chair on transgender children and their families and a full professor at the School of Social Work, Université de Montréal. Annie areas of expertise concern ethics and anti-oppression, perspectives that she applies to her empirical research on transgender children and youth and their families.
Publications
Publications (145)
Introduction
In recent years, numerous stories of detransition have emerged in the media and public discourse. Often regret-centered, these narratives tend to present detransition as a mistake that should be prevented by restricting access to gender transition, resulting in an increasingly antitrans sociopolitical climate. This article examines the...
Background
Adolescence, the transitional phase between childhood and adulthood, involves significant biological, social, cognitive and emotional changes. In India, adolescents (10–18 years) form 21% of the population, increasing to 33% when including those aged 10–24 years, making India home to the world’s largest adolescent population. The concept...
Objective
To examine how having more than one trans person in a family facilitates investments in or divestments from cisnormativity.
Background
While there is now a robust body of literature on trans people's experiences with cisgender family members and vice versa, largely missing has been a focus on families where more than one person in the fa...
Ces dernières années ont été marquées par certains gains juridiques et politiques pour les jeunes trans et non-binaires (TNB), mais également par des tensions sociopolitiques entourant leurs transitions de genre. Parallèlement à une couverture médiatique empreinte de sensationnalisme ou de désinformation sur le sujet, de nouvelles réalités ont émer...
OBJECTIF DU CHAPITRE : Être en mesure de contribuer à une recherche abordant une thématique touchant les personnes trans et non-binaires (TNB) de façon éthique et responsable. Quatre enjeux spécifiques à la recherche en contexte trans sont d'abord explicités: les enjeux de représentation, de sollicitation, de reconnaissance et de visibilisation. De...
This article delves into the typically unexamined complexities of conducting research with vulnerable populations, specifically focusing on trans and gender-diverse children and youth. While ethical guidelines exist, there are persistent knowledge gaps in genuinely collaborative research practices with vulnerable populations. Using collaborative au...
Family support plays an important role in promoting resilience and health among transgender and/or nonbinary youth (TNBY), but family members often experience barriers to supporting their TNBY, including minority-adjacent stress stemming from exposure to structural stigma and antitransgender legislation. TNBY and their families need effective famil...
Contexte : La détransition est comprise comme l’interruption ou le renversement d’une transition de genre. Les discours de détransition sur Twitter forment des « cadres interprétatifs » publics qui influencent le sens de la détransition et de la transition de genre.
Analyses : À partir d’un corpus de 10 628 tweets, l’analyse qualitative des 2 396 t...
The coming out process differs for everyone, and parents may experience difficulties such as external stress, ostracism and finding local services. Access to resources is, therefore, fundamental, and parents need support in accompanying their children. Methods: This research was carried out in two waves. Firstly, data collection began with parents...
In the wake of COVID-19, numerous research projects moved to online data collection to comply with public health guidelines. Since then, many qualitative projects have continued to use online methods to collect data. While online methods facilitated research continuity, they also introduced new opportunities for deceptive behaviors, particularly mi...
While recent research has begun to address the effects of family support on transgender and/or nonbinary youth (TNY), almost no studies have directly examined how cisgender siblings in families with TNY navigate their sibling's gender disclosure and affirmation within both their families and their larger communities. We conducted an exploratory sec...
Les caractéristiques propres aux parcours des jeunes qui détransitionnent (qui choisissent de discontinuer leur transition de genre) demeurent encore peu connues à ce jour. En outre, dans les dernières années, plusieurs études se sont intéressées aux difficultés vécues par les jeunes durant leur transition (médicale, sociale et/ou légale). Cependan...
Background: Detransition is frequently covered in the media as a return to a cis identity after transition. Detransition is often studied in isolation and fails to examine it in context of various stages leading to detransition. Aim: To present the perspectives and reflections of youth who have detransitioned on their journey from early transition...
Les jeunes s’identifiant comme étant des personnes trans ou non binaires (TNB) sont exposé·e·s au risque de vivre différentes formes de discrimination, d’abus et de violence de la part des membres de leur famille ou de leur entourage. Cet article a pour but de : 1) faire un portrait des jeunes TNB ayant vécu un ou des types d’abus ; 2) cerner le co...
The idea of “detransition” is stimulating debates among researchers and providers working with trans and nonbinary youth (TNBY), but research on this phenomenon is still in its early stages. This study presents the characteristics and experiences of providers who work directly with TNBY, including some who have discontinued a transition. Sixty-one...
Les jeunes trans et non binaires forment une population que l’on sait à risque de vivre des situations de discrimination et de violence et à très haut risque de vivre de la négligence parentale. Les quelques recherches disponibles sur leur expérience en protection de la jeunesse montrent que ces jeunes sont souvent forcé·e·s de vivre dans un genre...
Purpose: Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) youth face elevated levels of discrimination, stigma, mental health disorders, and suicidality when compared with their cisgender counterparts. Family and school support may mitigate some of the effects of the stressors facing TNB youth. This study aimed to better understand the impact of each of these sourc...
Some media have suggested that many youths who have previously completed a gender transition are “detransitioning”. Their experience is often framed around the idea of regrets but rare are the articles that provide a nuanced examination of their journey. This article presents the perspectives of youths who have detransitioned or discontinued a tran...
Aims
Identify the relationship between experiences of discrimination or violence and health outcomes for transgender and nonbinary Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) compared to their white trans and nonbinary peers.
Design
A national online survey, the 2019 Canadian Trans and Nonbinary Youth Health Survey, was conducted among youth ag...
Violence and persecution faced by people with nonnormative sexualities and genders (Abu-Assab N, Nasser-Eddin N, Greatrick A, Conceptualising sexualities in the MENA region: undoing LGBTQI Categories: implications for rights based advocacy approaches. Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration, London, 2017) have resulted in the forced...
Background
Referrals for transgender and gender-diverse (TGGD) youth to Canadian clinics providing gender-affirming medical care (GAMC) have grown rapidly over time. GAMC includes hormone suppression and/or hormone therapy as safe and effective strategies to modify secondary sexual characteristics and improve psychiatric outcomes in electing TGGD i...
Background:
School plays an important role in transgender and non-binary (TNB) youths' life and well-being. The aim of this study was to gain a better understanding of how the lived experiences, gender affirmation and challenges encountered by TNB youths in the school setting affect their well-being.
Method:
Our study was a qualitative secondary...
Introduction/Background *
LGBTQIA2S+ people are anywhere from 1.5 to 4 times more likely than cisgender heterosexual people to report depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors, substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual behaviors, homelessness, and victimization. LGBTQIA2S+ youth face unique stressors both publicly (e.g., victimization) as well...
An increasing number of jurisdictions now facilitate transitions for trans and non-binary youth (TNBY), allowing them to legally change their name and gender marker and providing medical gender-affirming care to support transition needs. The literature demonstrates the benefits of such measures in reducing adverse mental health outcomes. Strong par...
Dans un contexte social intense en 2020, dû notamment aux manifestations antiracistes suite au décès par étouffement de George Floyd, pour lequel un policier a été condamné aux États-Unis, durant la pandémie du COVID-19, quelques professeur.e.s ont entrepris une démarche pour écouter les personnes noires de l’École de travail social, entre autres,...
Transness and faith can seem incompatible given the often-negative religious messages about sexual and gender minorities. Yet religion/spirituality (R/S) appears to be widespread in the trans and nonbinary population (Salazar, 2017). Studies show that while religion can conflict with LGBTQ+ identities, it is also a source of resilience. However, fe...
Recent research on transgender children and youth suggests that strong parental support helps achieve greater quality of life and positive wellbeing, and helps reduce risk of self-harm, depression, and suicide. Parents face immense challenges in supporting and advocating for their youth and only a fraction will end up engaging in ally-ship and acti...
SUMMARY : In response to Bill 2, it is essential to know how the legal or administrative steps taken in Quebec province by trans and non-binary people to affirm their gender are associated with their well-being. Our study examines the links between those transition steps and two indicators of well-being (life satisfaction, psychological distress)....
The past decade has witnessed significant change in medical care for trans youth. A well-established pathologizing approach focused on asserting a young person’s assigned gender has been challenged by a growing number of experts who favour a model that supports gender exploration (e.g., by providing access to hormonal treatments and puberty blocker...
Parents of trans and gender-diverse youth can experience challenges navigating gender-affirming (GA) care such as stigma, transphobia, and lack of support. There is little information available about stressors, worries, and positive feelings of parents as they try to support their youth accessing GA care. This article presents baseline survey data...
De plus en plus de recherches démontrent l’importance du soutien parental comme facteur de protection face aux risques de santé mentale pour les jeunes trans et de la diversité de genre (TDG). Ces études sont primordiales pour l’accompagnement et le bien-être de ces jeunes. Toutefois, la perspective des parents vivant hors des grandes métropoles re...
Parental support is an important protective factor in preventing suicide among trans youth. However, parents often struggle to accept their child’s gender transition. Having access to a group and to meeting other parents facilitates the acceptance process, but support groups are rare and even more so outside urban areas. The research project discus...
Dans la foulée des débats sociojuridiques actuels au Québec, depuis l’annonce du controversé projet de loi 2, l'objectif de cette étude est d'examiner les associations entre le fait d’entreprendre une démarche de transition légale ou administrative chez les personnes TNB et deux indicateurs de leur bien-être, en tenant compte de l’âge, de l'éducati...
Background and objectives:
Referrals of transgender and gender-diverse (trans) youth to medical clinics for gender-affirming care have increased. We described characteristics of trans youth in Canada at first referral visit.
Methods:
Baseline clinical and survey data (2017-2019) were collected for Trans Youth CAN!, a 10-clinic prospective cohort...
Les personnes LGBTQ+ sont 1,5 à 4 fois plus à risque que les personnes hétérosexuelles de souffrir de troubles de santé mentale (p. ex. dépression, anxiété, comportements suicidaires).
Objectif L’objectif est de décrire le processus de développement d’une application mobile pour les jeunes LGBTQ+ et leur famille. L’article fait partie d’un programm...
This article presents the results of a combined grounded theory and community-based participatory action research project with 54 trans and nonbinary youths (TNBY) residing in the province of Quebec, Canada. The project includes two important sensitizing concepts: intersectionality and recognition. In the research, intersectionality was defined as...
Au Québec, depuis 2009, les parents d’accueil œuvrant en protection de la jeunesse ont un statut de travailleur, sont représentés par un syndicat et leur rôle est encadré par un mécanisme de contrôle de la qualité des services. Dans ce contexte, certains d’entre eux vivent des tensions semblables à ce qu’expérimentent les parents d’accueil dans d’a...
Trans and non-binary youth (TNBY) face high levels of interpersonal and social adversity as well as disproportionate rates of mental health issues such as depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation. Among protective factors, context plays a key role. In addition to parental support, access to gender-affirming medical care begins to emerge as cruci...
LGBTQ+ people are anywhere from 1.5 to 4 times more likely than heterosexual people to report depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviors, substance abuse, eating disorders, risky sexual behaviors, homelessness, and victimization. Objective The purpose is to describe the development of a mobile application for LGBTQ youth and their family. This article...
Depuis quelque temps, on observe une prise de conscience publique concernant les enjeux que vivent les personnes trans migrantes et les jeunes trans, surtout au Québec. Néanmoins, il existe très peu de littérature sur le vécu des jeunes trans migrants et racisés. Notre article vise à pallier cette lacune apparente dans les recherches francophones s...
Background
Trans and non-binary children and young people in England, UK struggle to gain access to affirming clinical care, despite the international research evidence pointing toward this best practice approach. Concurrently, they are subject to constant discussion in the UK national media and politics, where many negative assumptions are made ab...
Tel qu’abordé dans le dernier numéro d’août 2020 (1), les jeunes trans et non-binaires (TNB) vivent des enjeux particuliers sur le plan de leur orientation scolaire et professionnelle. Le cas fictif de Mathieu avait permis d’explorer les principaux repères légaux et déontologiques entourant l’intervention auprès des jeunes mineur·e·s et plus partic...
This article is available in open access here:
http://journals.openedition.org/efg/10477
Cadre de la recherche : Cet article porte sur les différents niveaux de soutien parental dont bénéficient (ou ne bénéficient pas) les jeunes trans.
Objectifs : Le présent article vise à définir ce qu’est le soutien parental du point de vue des jeunes trans, et...
Access to medical care is significant for many transgender young people and their families, which involves interactions with healthcare professionals. While a trans affirming model is used across Australian paediatric gender clinics, this does not automatically mean that all transgender young people and their parents experience the care they receiv...
This article presents the results of a community-based participatory action-research conducted in the province of Quebec with 54 trans youth (15-25 years old). It describes the difficult reality faced by youth who are both trans and disabled and who live at the intersection of cisgenderism (or transphobia) and ableism. The research project, which u...
Cet article est issu d’une recherche-action participative et communautaire menée dans la province de Québec auprès de 54 jeunes trans (15-25 ans). Il décrit la difficile réalité à laquelle font face les jeunes étant à la fois trans et handicapé-es et vivant à l’intersection du cisgenrisme (ou transphobie) et du capacitisme. Le projet de recherche,...
The current study used family and ecological systems approaches to understand transgender and/or nonbinary (TNB) youths' experiences of their gender identity within family and community contexts. A sample of 33 TNB youth, ages 13-17 years (M = 15.18, SD = 1.24), were recruited from community-based venues in the New England region of the United Stat...
Nous estimons que les intervenant·e·s doivent être bien informé·e·s sur ce qu’est la diversité de genre, mais qu’iels gagneraient aussi à mieux comprendre les enjeux légaux et déontologiques actuels des jeunes trans et non-binaires (TNB) afin de maximiser la qualité de leurs services professionnels sans amplifier leurs difficultés. Cet article est...
This article aims to share key findings from a scoping review of the literature about LGBTQI migrants from a global context. The scoping review methodology allows for rapid assessment of a broad range of literature while also highlighting key knowledge and policy strengths and gaps. Although this review focuses on the Canadian-specific literature,...
Contexte Malgré les récents progrès sociaux et législatifs en matière de reconnaissance et d'acceptation de la diversité sexuelle et de genre au Québec, les jeunes trans et non binaires* (JTNB) sont confrontées à des niveaux disproportionnés d'adversité interpersonnelle et sociale (p. ex. l'exclusion sociale, le harcèlement scolaire et le manque...
How trans youth realize about their gender identity and come out to their significant others is under-researched and very few studies include both youth and parental perspectives. This study was developed in Switzerland, a country where families with trans youth are just beginning to break invisibility. The research protocol draws on grounded theor...
La suicidalité chez les jeunes trans est très importante. La recherche montre qu’il y a de meilleures chances de la prévenir, dans un contexte social aidant, avec du soutien parental et un accès aux traitements de confirmation de genre. Or, que vivent les jeunes trans et leur famille dans des contextes où, comme c’est le cas de la Suisse francophon...
De plus en plus, on note un intérêt grandissant pour les jeunes trans mais la plupart des articles publiés visent à décrire leurs expériences en mettant souvent l’accent sur des aspects psychologiques, individuels et relationnels. Encore rares sont les articles qui se penchent sur le contexte social et sur la capacité et la motivation des jeunes à...
Background: Research about gender identity development is still in its infancy, especially among youth who experience gender dysphoria and are accessing gender-affirming medical care.
Aims: This article contributes to the literature on how gender identity and gender dysphoria is experienced, expressed and addressed by youth who have started, or ar...
Starting from the idea that many social work professors exceed the traditionally defined ‘service’ requirements of their university and are actively involved in social change and justice initiatives, this article aims at critically reflecting upon our own experiences as three social work educators. In the article, we address the question of how soc...
This exploratory study discusses the factors that influence the decision-making process of child protection workers in assessing the situation of racialized families in Montreal (Canada). Drawing on grounded theory methodology, this qualitative analysis is based on 18 in-depth semi-structured interviews and one focus group with child protection wor...
Cadre de la recherche : Cet article porte sur les différents niveaux de soutien parental dont bénéficient (ou ne bénéficient pas) les jeunes trans.
Objectifs : Le présent article vise à définir ce qu’est le soutien parental du point de vue des jeunes trans, et à montrer comment celui-ci affecte leur bien-être.
Méthodologie : L’article s’appuie sur...
Dans les dernières années, les pratiques de soins (et aussi les pratiques parentales) tendent à s'éloigner des anciennes méthodes réparatrices et médicalisantes des jeunes trans vers un modèle de soins affirmatifs du genre. Dans le même esprit, les soins affirmatifs du genre ainsi que la transiti on médicale deviennent de plus en plus disponibles p...
Cette fiche descriptive résumant le projet de recherche montre à quel point il est important de tenir compte des identités qui s’entrecroisent.
Il permet aussi de souligner les violences structurelles que vivent les personnes trans, non-binaires et bispirituelles autochtones, mais aussi la résilience que ces jeunes ont pu trouver dans les identité...
La rencontre des services de protection de la jeunesse (PJ) et des familles racisées est porteuse de tensions qui, du point de vue des pratiques, restent peu documentées. Cet article s’appuie sur une recherche auprès de professionnelles et de gestionnaires des services de PJ. Les résultats montrent que dans le contexte de l’évaluation auprès de fam...
Background: It is increasingly recognized that transgender young people require affirming medical care, however the provision of such care may be mitigated by the availability of services and the views of parents.
Aims: This study aimed to explore the views of Australian transgender young people (aged 11–17) and their parents with regards to medica...
Over the past 5 years in Canada, clinicians have observed an increasing number of gender-diverse and trans children and youth (GDTCY) accessing clinics for gender-affirming care. GDTCY who are able to access care are usually accompanied by their families, which provides a unique opportunity to integrate them into the treatment team. GDTCY have bett...
Nous avons analysé les récits obtenus à travers des entrevues individuelles auprès de 36 jeunes trans et nonbinaires qui ont reçu ou recevront sous peu des soins d’affirmation de genre (bloqueurs d’hormone, hormonothérapie, chirurgie) dans une des cliniques canadiennes spécialisées située à Montréal, Ottawa ou Winnipeg. Durant les entrevues, les je...
Background: Canadian specialty clinics offering gender-affirming care to trans and gender diverse children and youth have observed a significant increase in referrals in recent years, but there is a lack of information about the experiences of young people receiving care. Furthermore, treatment protocols governing access to gender-affirming medical...
Il semble y avoir de plus en plus de demandes de soin par des enfants et adolescents trans et non binaires. Pour saisir les enjeux, besoins et solutions actuellement validées par la recherche, nous avons mené une revue de la littérature scientifique de 2010 à 2017. Il en ressort que les enfants et adolescents trans sont parmi les jeunes les plus à...
http://jeunestransyouth.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/factsheet_janvier2020.pdf
Le travail social s’exerce aujourd’hui dans un contexte de plus en plus règlementé. Ce contexte pose l’exigence aux travailleuses sociales de se positionner entre les demandes organisationnelles et leurs valeurs professionnelles. Ceci peut avoir un impact sur leur identité professionnelle.Dans cet article, nous résumons les résultats de deux projet...
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) involves community members collaborating with academic investigators in each step of the research process. CBPR may be especially useful for research involving marginalized populations with unique perspectives and needs. In this paper, we discuss successes and challenges of using a CBPR approach for the...
This article presents the results and theorization of a 4-year Grounded Theory project that sought to understand the processes and dynamics involved in the professional adaptation of internationally educated social workers now practicing in Canada. In-depth interviews with 66 participants, who undertook social work education outside of Canada and h...
Successful management of a multi-site bilingual team-based grounded theory study requires overcoming key challenges associated with implementation of a large-scale, multi-faceted project. This article retrospectively reviews the methodological strategies employed during a multi-site bilingual team-based grounded theory study that investigated the p...
Background: The literature on trans youth has been dominated by etiological studies interested in trans experience as a medical phenomenon. An emerging body of literature has begun to document that trans youth are a diverse, vulnerable, yet resilient population, and to investigate the role of various sites of support such as the family, peer groups...
Canada is promoted as a land of opportunity, with its natural beauty purportedly matched by the generosity of its people. Since 1994, Canada has been ranked in the top 10 places to live in the world, and in 2013 it placed third in the global ‘better life index’, recognised for its comfortable standard of living, low mortality rate, solid education...
Every year, a number of social workers who have studied and obtained their qualifications abroad immigrate to Canada. They do so to start a new life and pursue their careers in one of the Canadian provinces (Brown et al, 2015; Pullen Sansfaçon et al, 2012). However, even with the ‘Global Qualifying Standards’ (International Federation of Social Wor...
This chapter synthesises the data from two knowledge exchange fora where the findings of a four-year research study funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) were shared with, and subsequently responded to by, social work employers and provincial regulators as well as internationally educated social workers. The key theme...
Background
While the scholarly literature is sparse on data and analyses from social work employers in Canada, anecdotal accounts suggest that they are eager to hire social workers who come to the field of practice as seasoned professionals in both substantive content and contextual knowledge. They cite the fast pace of the work environment, the na...
Introduction
This chapter discusses findings obtained from interviews with 19 foreign-educated social workers who took part in a larger qualitative study aimed at understanding professional adaptation to social work practice in Canada. One of the research questions, explored in the context of the larger-scale project, was to investigate how social...
The context of immigration to Canada
Canada prides itself on a reputation for being a welcoming and inclusive country, promoting collective pride in a multicultural mosaic wherein a diversity of ethnicities, cultures and religions coexist. It is a country that often enjoys positive international assessment, with its reported comfortable standard of...
This unique book provides an international comparison of labour markets, migrant professionals and immigration policies, and their interaction in relation to social work. Case studies based on the latest research from the UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia allow readers to make critical comparisons and gain understanding of the global n...
"Dans plusieurs milieux de travail, des travailleuses sociales et travailleurs sociaux sont en contact avec des jeunes transgenres et leurs familles. En centres jeunesse, en première ligne, au sein d’organismes communautaires ou même en pratique autonome, ces professionnels sont souvent mal outillés pour bien comprendre ce que vivent ces personnes...