Keeping the 'T' in LGBT: Testing and Implementing Gender Identity Questions in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)

• Activity Number: 238
• Type: Topic Contributed
• Date/Time: Monday, August 1, 2016 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Matt Jans* and David Grant and Royce Park and Ninez Ponce and Jody Herman and Bianca D. M. Wilson and Gary Gates and Sue Holtby and Nicole Lordi and Joe Viana
• Companies: University of California at Los Angeles and University of California at Los Angeles and University of California at Los Angeles and University of California at Los Angeles and The Williams Institute and The Williams Institute and The Williams Institute and Public Health Institute and Public Health Institute and University of California at Los Angeles
• Keywords: gender identity ; transgender ; sexuality measurement ; California Health Interview Survey ; gender and health ; sexuality and health

Abstract

There is a dearth of population-based estimates of transgender status. Yet the unique health needs of transgender people demand that we develop quality statistics to represent them. The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a large representative survey of the nation's most diverse state, is a perfect test vehicle for implementing gender identity (GI) questions. We conducted a randomized experimental test of four GI measures in CHIS 2014. Results showed that first asking the respondent's assigned sex at birth, followed by their current gender or gender identity had several desirable qualities. This measure is now asked of the CHIS 2015-2016 adult sample interviewed in English, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog. CHIS 2015-2016 also includes a gender expression (GE) measure for teen respondents (age 12-17). We will briefly discuss qualitative and quantitative aspects of the GI question wording experiment, and summarize GI and GE results from CHIS 2015. The impact of GI questions on overall questionnaire design (e.g., gender/sex-based skip patterns) will also be discussed.