Student development theory continues to serve as an empirical guide to structuring programs, curriculum, and interventions that can help students grow and thrive while enrolled in college. While earlier scholars examined development through singular dimensions, researchers and practitioners have called for integrative theories that account for students' multi-dimensional development, particularly for students excluded from earlier theories. We took up the call to examine integrative development specifically for transgender students through two research questions. First, what are the important dimensions of transgender college students' development? Second, given these dimensions, how do transgender college students develop while in college? To answer these questions, we used constructivist grounded theory. Using 5 years' worth of data from a longitudinal qualitative study, we found two important dimensions of transgender college students' development (interpersonal and intrapersonal) and three patterns of growth (conforming to external definitions, recognizing the limitations of externally imposed definitions, and embracing self-definition) within those dimensions during participants' college enrollment. As administrators continue to recognize the existing diversity of student communities in college and university enrollments, our findings provide higher education staff and faculty with guidance on promoting the learning and development of transgender students.
Lange et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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