Poster #112 - Identity Concealment and Centrality: Links to Mental Health in Binary Transgender Youth

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

Research on a range of concealable, stigmatized identities has identified identity concealment, an identity management strategy, as potentially detrimental to people’s mental health and well-being (Brennan et al., 2021). In a recent study of identity concealment among binary transgender adults (Alonso et al., in prep), identity concealment was linked to lower levels of psychological well-being. However, among binary transgender adults who viewed their affirmed gender (i.e., being a woman or man) as more important to their sense of self relative to their identity as a transgender person (i.e., identity centrality), the observed effect was buffered.

In the current study, we were interested in exploring whether concealment, centrality, and mental health processes similarly interact among binary transgender youth. Adolescence is a time characterized by identity exploration and a sensitive period in which mental health concerns begin to arise, particularly for marginalized youth like transgender adolescents (Reisner et al., 2015). Further, many transgender youths have begun living in their affirmed gender at significantly earlier ages than their adult counterparts who may not have begun living as their affirmed gender until later in adulthood (James et al., 2016). Because adolescence is a crucial period in development, along with potential generational differences in how transgender youth may define their gender identity, it is possible that concealment of a transgender identity in adolescence might relate to self-definitions and mental health in a way that is unique from that of transgender adults.

Data for the current study were collected as part of a national, longitudinal study of gender development among 12- to 17-year-old transgender adolescents. Our two research questions were as follows: (1) does transgender identity concealment predict mental health (i.e., depression and anxiety) among binary transgender youth? (2) does identity centrality moderate the link between concealment and mental health? As part of an online survey, participants completed a transgender identity concealment scale (adapted from SOCS; Jackson & Mohr, 2016), an identity centrality scale assessing importance of affirmed gender relative to transgender status, and the PROMIS depression and anxiety pediatric scales.

Data collection for this study has recently been completed. Planned analyses include regression analyses to test whether concealment will predict depression and anxiety levels among the current transgender youth sample. Based on research with adults, we hypothesize that increased levels of concealment will be linked to greater levels of depression and anxiety. Moreover, moderation analyses will be used to show whether identity centrality moderates the link between concealment and mental health. Here, we expect that among adolescents whose binary affirmed gender is most central to their self-definition relative to their identity as a transgender person, a weakened association will be observed between concealment and mental health.

Together, the current study aims to address calls for a more nuanced understanding of how transgender individuals across the lifespan may experience their gender identity, as well as how identity development among a stigmatized population relates to identity concealment and mental health.

Authors

• Daniel James Alonso, Fordham University
  Presenting Author

• Selin Gülgöz, Fordham University

• Kristina R Olson, Princeton University