BBA #3

Gender minority stress in trans and gender diverse adolescents and young people

Summary

  • Investigated the mental health effects of minority stress on transgender and gender diverse young people

    • Age range: 16-25

    • 135 cisgender participants, 106 TGD participants

      • Majority of TGD had gender dysphoria

      • Cisgender group was 66.7% heterosexual, TGD only 7.5%

      • Higher percentage of AFAB people

    • Measures: anxiety, depression, general well-being, gender dysphoria, distal and proximal gender minority stress, resilience, and heteronormative beliefs

    • Located in the UK

  • Results

    • TGD people had higher levels of depression and anxiety and poorer wellbeing than cisgender counterparts

    • TGD who experienced minority stress + AFAB had higher negative psych outcomes

    • TGD with resilience and AMAB had better general wellbeing

    • Implications for treatment of anxiety and depression for TGDYP

    • When controlled for age, GD, sexuality, and sex, TGD and higher anxiety and depression

  • Why adolescence

    • Coming out period

    • Greater MH difficulties

    • Puberty influencing gender dysphoria

  • Distal minority stressors are a predictor of suicide

  • Heternormative beliefs contribute to GMS

  • Hypotheses

    • TGD Ss will have higher anxiety and depression scores (Supported)

    • Wellbeing scores will be lower in TGD than cisgender Ss (Supported)

    • For TGD Ss (GD controlled)

      • Positive relationship btwn distal and proximal stress and depression and anxiety scores, negative relationship w/ well being (Supported)

      • Positive association btwn heternormative beliefs and anxiety/depression, negative correlation w/ well-being (partially supported, only when resilience is considered)

      • Higher resilience associated w/ lower anxiety/depression and higher well-being (partially supported, higher resilence associated w/ higher well being, but not anxiety/depression)

  • Methods

    • Online survey: Demographics, PHQ-9, GAD, Warwick-Edinburgh mental well-being scale, GIGDQ-AA, GMSR, HABS

    • Used hierarchal regression ananlysis

  • Implications

    • GD is not the sole explanation for negative MH outcomes in TGD population

    • Depression stonger association w/ proximal, anxiety w/ distal

  • Limitations

    • Cross-sectional, cannot tell direction

    • GSMR was used w/out one of the sub-scales (they messed up)

      • Missed non-disclosure of gender identity/sexuality

    • Sample skewed towards female

    • GMS did not account for the majority of MH issues, it’s one of many factors

Connections

  • Discusses minority stress model

  • Goes into detail about distal and proximal stressors

  • Points out the difference between individual efforts and societal prejudices

  • GMS more important than GD in predicting MH outcomes

Reflection

  • This shows that understanding GMS can alter how we approach psychological treatment

    • If physicians only focus on treating GD, they miss the harms of GMS

  • Outside stressors linked to anxiety while internal stressors linked to depression

  • Shows the complexity of MH issues in adolescents