Minority Stress, Resilience, and Mental Health: A Study of Italian Transgender People

Abstract

Transgender people often experience oppression because of gender nonconformity. They represent an extremely stigmatized population at high risk of developing mental health problems. The minority stress model is a theoretical model used to understand social stigma as a potential cause of mental health disparities faced by the transgender population. In Italy, studies applying this model to the transgender population are limited. The current study applied the minority stress model to a sample of Italian transgender people (n = 149), analyzing effects of prejudice events, expectations of rejection, and internalized transphobia, and their interaction with protective factors (resilience and social support), on mental health. The results suggest that exposure to everyday discrimination and internalized transphobia are associated with increased mental health problems, while perceived social support from family and resilience significantly reduced the strength of association between everyday discrimination and mental health. Findings have important implications for both social issues and policies

Sexual and Gender Minority Health Disparities as a Social Issue: How Stigma and Intergroup Relations Can Explain and Reduce Health Disparities

“…Following this introduction, the special issue begins its first major section with conceptual and methodological issues. Frost () discusses the challenges and benefits of research employing a sexual and gender minority health disparities framework, in addition to the methodological challenges of reaching hidden populations and defining the minority groups. Next, Ryan, Hunger, and Major () provide a theoretical application of intergroup relations to sexual and gender minority experience.…”

The minority strengths model: Development and initial path analytic validation in racially/ethnically diverse LGBTQ individuals

“…Among the strength-based variables and outcomes identified for the minority strengths model, there is theoretical and empirical evidence suggesting specific likely pathways and relationships. Social support has been associated with increased identity pride (Bogart, Lund, & Rottenstein, 2018), self-esteem (Austin & Goodman, 2017;Hoffman, Ushpiz, & Levy-Shiff, 1988;Kong & You, 2013;Rosenberg, 1979), resilience (Earnshaw, Bogart, Dovidio, & Williams, 2015;Thompson, McBride, Hosford & Halaas, 2016), mental health (Pflum et al, 2015;Scandurra, Amodeo, Valerio, Bochicchio, & Frost, 2017), and positive health behaviors (Brown et al, 2016;Gustafsson, Berglund, Faronbi, Barenfeld, & Hammar, 2017). It would make sense then that it is a key variable on the left side of the model exerting an effect on all other variables in the model.…”

The Benefits and Challenges of Health Disparities and Social Stress Frameworks for Research on Sexual and Gender Minority Health

“…As a result, the majority of research on stigma and its impact on sexual and gender minority health has utilized within‐group designs. This approach is useful in understanding the association between stigma and health (e.g., Lewis et al., ; Scandurra, Amodeo, Valerio, Bochicchio, & Frost, ; Williams, Mann, & Fredrick, ), but lacks the ability to examine the extent to which stigma explains a given health disparity (Schwartz & Meyer, ).…”