ABSTRACT
The first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM; American Psychiatric Association, 1952) contained only two diagnoses specifically for children—adjustment reaction and schizophrenic reaction, childhood type. The second edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1968) contained nine diagnoses for children. Neither of these editions included a disorder pertaining to childhood gender identity problems. This situation changed in the third edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1980), which introduced the diagnosis gender identity disorder of childhood (GIDC); it may, however, have been given a kind of outlaw status by making it the only disorder for children not located in the section of DSM-III entitled Disorders Usually First Evident in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence. Perhaps because of this separation, a number of recent texts devoted exclusively to child psychiatric diagnoses (Frame & Matson, 1987; Ollendick & Hersen, 1983) have omitted the GIDC from discussion. The revised third edition of the DSM (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987) placed the GIDC in the same section as other child psychiatric disorders, so perhaps its previous neglect will become nothing more than a dim memory. The present chapter provides the reader with a critical overview regarding the common terminology used in the study of psychosexual development and its disorders, the reliability and validity of various approaches to diagnostic classification, available assessment procedures, and directions for future clinical research in the areas of assessment and diagnosis.
