Gender differences in cisgender psychologists’ and trainees’ attitudes toward transgender people.

Abstract

Research that has explored the attitudes of cisgender people toward transgender people has identified gender differences, with cisgender men commonly reporting more negative attitudes than cisgender women. However, little research has explored whether such differences exist among mental health professionals. This brief report outlines findings from 3 studies focusing on attitudes toward transgender people among 3 samples of Australian cisgender psychologists or psychology trainees. The first explored attitudes toward transgender people among psychology undergraduates in an Australian university. The second 2 explored attitudes toward transgender people among Australian mental health-care profession-als (with the specific focus of this brief report being upon participants in each study who were psychologists). The findings from each study suggest that cisgender men reported more negative attitudes than did cisgender women. This brief report concludes by considering the broader context that potentially shapes cisgender men's attitudes and advocates for further research that examines the impact of gender ideology upon attitudes and awareness raising so as to improve service outcomes for transgender people. This is an Author Accepted version of a manuscript published in Psychology of Men andMasculinities.

The capacity of South Australian primary school teachers and pre-service teachers to work with trans and gender diverse students

“…However, the findings suggest that women had more positive attitudes when compared with men. This echoes findings reported in previous research on the attitudes of school staff (Riggs & Bartholomaeus, 2015;Bowers et al, 2015;Silveira & Goff, 2016), psychologists and psychology students (Riggs & Sion, 2016), and the general population (e.g. Nagoshi et al, 2008;Norton and Herek, 2013) towards trans and gender diverse people, in which men have been found to have a greater investment in, and anxiety about, the gender order and their place in it, which it has been suggested leads to more transphobic attitudes and behaviours (Riggs & Sion, 2016;Nagoshi et al, 2008;Norton and Herek, 2013).…”

Transfobia y Religiosidad en Puerto Rico: Estudio Exploratorio en Profesionales de la Salud

“…Más aún otros estudios han examinado específicamente la relación entre el fundamentalismo religioso y la transfobia mostrando resultados significativos (Fisher et al, 2017). Estos hallazgos han sido tan consistentes que se ha recomendado inclusive evaluar la religión como un predictor de actitudes negativas hacia personas Trans (Riggs & Sion, 2017).…”

Working With Suicidal and Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth in the Context of Family Rejection

“…One study found especially high rates of negative attitudes toward transgender patients among cisgender male psychologists and psychology trainees (Riggs and Sion, 2017). Additional practice guidelines (American Psychological Association, 2012Association, , 2015 call for clinicians to differentiate gender from sexual orientation, recognize effects of stigma and discrimination, appreciate various forms and meaning of biological and non-biological family and family roles, and adopt an ideological stance that LGBTQ+ status itself is neither a mental health problem nor inherently connected with mental health problems.…”