Minority stress, gender congruence, body appreciation and trait resilience in transgender and gender diverse people

Description

A dataset gathered from online questionnaires posed to volunteer participants recruited via Reddit. Participants provided age and gender (self-described) before completing a novel measure of perceptual gender incongruence called the Perceptual Gender Incongruence Measure, the Minority Stress and Resilience Measure, the Transgender Congruence Scale, the Body Appreciation Scale-2, and the trait subscale of the State-Trait Assessment of Resilience Scale. Participants were also invited to take part in a body part adjustment task to discover the limitations of the Perceptual Gender Incongruence Measure. Each participant created a "current" and "ideal" representation of their body using the same programme (Blender Studio) with which the measure's visual stimuli were produced. The modifications made to each model were recorded. The questionnaire data was also tested with the following hypotheses: 1. Higher minority stress will positively predict perceptual gender incongruence. 2. Lower minority stress will positively predict attitudinal gender congruence. 3. Lower minority stress will positively predict body appreciation. Gender identity will moderate this relationship, with transgender and gender diverse (TGD) groups exhibiting greater impacts, and nonbinary people exhibiting the lowest body appreciation. 4. High perceptual gender incongruence will serve as a proximal stressor, as per the MSAR model. Gender identity will moderate this relationship, with TGD groups exhibiting greater impacts, and transgender women and men exhibiting the lowest body appreciation. 5. Low attitudinal gender congruence will serve as a proximal stressor, as per the MSAR model. Gender identity will moderate this relationship, with TGD groups exhibiting greater impacts, and transgender women and men exhibiting the lowest body appreciation. 6. Trait resilience will positively mediate the predictive roles of minority stress, attitudinal gender congruence and perceptual gender incongruence on body appreciation. Data was analysed through correlation matrices, ANOVAs and linear regressions to build the rationale for a series of moderation analyses. It was identified that the only significant minority stressor in the Minority Stress and Resilience Measure was non-affirmation of gender identity, and so that stressor was the only one carried further. Trait resilience data demonstrated inadequate reliability and was not carried further. Moderation analyses demonstrated that gender congruence was more of a factor in the body appreciation of transgender women and cisgender men than in transgender men. Non-affirmation was more of a factor in the body appreciation in transgender women and nonbinary people. The results were interpreted as representing differing needs which should be considered in ED services for transgender and gender diverse people. They were also interpreted as providing evidence that gendered affirmation also plays a role in the body image of cisgender people.

Steps to reproduce

Questionnaires were shared on three Subreddits (r/SampleSize, r/SurveyExchange, r/takemysurvey) created for researchers to share their questionnaires with potential participants. The questionnaire was posted (with the relevant information) at regular intervals of every 1-3 days, in keeping with the forums' codes of conduct. To reassure transgender/gender diverse participants of the trustworthiness of the research, assurances were made that the project was being conducted primarily by a genderqueer person (Luke Tacconelli). Only participants aged 18+ were included. Demographic questions and measures were presented in the order they are listed above. Where participants did not complete a measure, the response was filled in with the mean score for that item within the participant's gender identity group; this was the case unless a participant completed <70% of a measure, in which case their data for that measure was not used. No attention checks were employed for this questionnaire. At the end of the questionnaire, participants were given the option to provide their email address to organise a meeting with the principal researcher wherein they would test the limitations of the Perceptual Gender Incongruence Measure (which, at this stage, only interrogates perceptions of the shoulders, chest, and hip-to-waist ratio). This was achieved by each participant creating a "current" and "ideal" representation of their body using the same programme with which the measure's visual stimuli were produced with no restriction as to which aspects of the body they could alter. The changes that each participant made to each of the current and ideal models were then recorded alongside the participant's gender identity. Due to the limitations of the software used (Blender Studio version 2.8.1 with the MB-Lab add-on version 1.7.8), a "masculine" and "feminine" baseline for each model had to be selected; participants were directed to select one of these options for both current and ideal models prior to making any adjustments.

Institutions

• University of Lincoln

  England, Lincoln

Categories

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