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Minority Stressors Associated with Mental Health Problems in a US Sample of Transgender Adults (304857)

Keywords: transgender health, Structural Equation Model, minority stress model

The effects of internal minority stressors (e.g., expecting rejection, identity concealment) on the mental health of transgender adults have not been investigated thoroughly. The majority of published research has focused on external stressors, such as discrimination and violence. In this study, we investigated associations among both internal and external stressors and mental health problems in a sample of 300 U.S. transgender adults. Using multiple linear and logistic regression, we found that expecting rejection is associated with elevated levels of emotional distress and increased odds of self-harm behavior. Further, identity concealment is associated with elevated levels of emotional distress and increased odds of self-harm behavior and considering suicide. Neither internal stressor was associated with suicidal behavior. Discrimination and violence were associated with all measured mental health outcomes and with both internal stressors. Intervention development efforts should dually focus on processing discrimination experiences and ameliorating the impact of the internal stressors to improve the mental health of this vulnerable population.