Families often have little knowledge and skills to support their trans children. Therefore, our aim was to learn more about the experiences of parents of trans children and adolescents and how the transition process is experienced. Using a qualitative approach, we analyzed 22 life stories written by parents of trans children and adolescents. The data were analyzed with MAXQDA. Three key periods were considered: (1) before, (2) during, and (3) after social transition. The themes most frequently reported by parents were: children’s not expected gender expressions and negative attitudes and feelings, and parents’ negative feelings, denial and repression attitudes, confussion and search of information, before transition; children’s explicit disclosure, name selection and more positive attitudes, followed by parental understanding, acceptance and support, during transition; and both parents’ and children’s positive attitudes and feelings, as well as concern about pubertal development and expectations and fears about the future, after transition. In general, the stories reflect children’s negative emotions before social transition and parents’ doubts and lack of knowledge, which were followed by acceptance and more positive emotions once the social transition had taken place. Concerns and problems were reported by most of the families throughout the three time periods. Our findings emphasize the need to facilitate social transition and to design specific approaches to better support transitioning children and adolescents, and their families.

家庭往往缺乏支持跨性别儿童的知识和技能。因此，我们的目标是更多地了解跨性别儿童和青少年父母的经历以及过渡过程是如何经历的。我们采用定性方法，分析了跨性别儿童和青少年父母撰写的 22 个生活故事。使用 MAXQDA 分析数据。考虑了三个关键时期：（1）社会转型之前，（2）社会转型期间，（3）社会转型之后。家长最常报告的主题是：孩子非预期的性别表达和消极态度和感受，以及父母在转型前的消极感受、否认和压抑态度、困惑和信息搜索；在过渡过程中，孩子的明确表露、名字选择和更积极的态度，以及父母的理解、接受和支持；以及父母和孩子的积极态度和感受，以及对青春期发育的担忧以及对过渡后未来的期望和恐惧。总的来说，这些故事反映了社会转型前儿童的负面情绪和父母的怀疑和缺乏知识，而社会转型发生后，这些故事随之而来的是接受和更积极的情绪。在这三个时期内，大多数家庭都报告了担忧和问题。我们的研究结果强调需要促进社会转型并设计具体方法来更好地支持转型儿童和青少年及其家庭。