Individual factors and cisgender college students' attitudes and behaviors toward transgender individuals

Abstract

The present study is one of few to investigate both antitrans discrimination and anti-trans prejudice. It examined four individual factors (religiosity; political beliefs; affiliation with LGBTQ [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer] people; gender role beliefs) through a lens of hetero-cis-normativity to understand their association with anti-trans attitudes and reported behaviors. Using a sample of 302 cisgender college students from across the United States, hierarchical multiple regressions on bootstrap samples were used to analyze how these factors are associated with anti-trans attitudes and behaviors. More liberal political beliefs, affiliation with more LGBTQ friends and family members, and less traditional gender role beliefs were related to more positive attitudes toward transgender people. Less traditional gender role beliefs and more positive attitudes were associated with more positive reported behaviors toward transgender individuals. Interventions designed to challenge traditional gender role beliefs and approximate affiliation with LGBTQ persons may be most effective to reduce pervasive hetero-cis-normative prejudice and discrimination within schools.

Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Students in Luxembourg

“…In finding support for Hypothesis 3, we identified another correlate of preservice teachers' attitudes toward LGB students, namely, hypergendering. Whereas previous research found that hypergendering tendencies were associated with higher prejudice against LGBT people in different samples, such as in U.S. university students (e.g., Caballero, 2013;Hackimer et al, 2021) and in Western society in general (Bettinsoli et al, 2020), we were the first research team, to our knowledge, to find this relationship in preservice teachers. This finding is alarming, as traditional gender roles remain prevalent in Germany, even among young adults, and especially among young men.…”

“…Research has found that hypergendering tendencies are associated with higher prejudice against LGBT people in U.S. university students (Caballero, 2013;Hackimer et al, 2021;Harbaugh & Lindsey, 2015;Kurdek, 1988;Whitley, 2001), heterosexual Filipino adults (Reyes et al, 2019), as well as in a broader, international context (Bettinsoli et al, 2020). But what does this association stem from?…”

Attitudes towards Trans Men and Women in Spain: An Adaptation of the ATTMW Scale

“…Recent studies have corroborated and expanded the type of connection that transphobia shares with other LGBphobias [38,40,41], sexism [38,40], right-wing political affiliation [41][42][43][44], religiosity [34,45,46], hegemonic or dominant social orientation [32,40,43,47,48], being a cis man [40,41,44], being heterosexual [38,40], and/or having contact with trans people [38,42,49].…”

Gender, traditional gender ideology, gender essentialist beliefs, and masculinity threat as determinants of attitudes toward trans and gender diverse people in a U.K. sample.

“…Endorsement of traditional gender ideology has also been found to be a significant predictor of attitudes (Hackimer et al, 2021; Perez-Arche & Miller, 2021), including attitudes toward trans athletes’ participation in sports (Flores et al, 2020) and service in the U.S. military (Lewis et al, 2021). Gender differences have also been observed, with men holding more negative attitudes than women, partly because men place more importance on adhering to traditional masculine gender norms (Brassel & Anderson, 2020; Perez-Arche & Miller, 2021).…”