LGBTQ Youth in Sports: Gender Identity and Mental Health

• In Event: Life in the Margins: Marginalization and Mental Health among LGBTQ Youth

Abstract

Participating in sports has been shown to have positive effects on youth mental health, including improved self-esteem and lower depressive symptoms (Biddle & Asare, 2011, Eime et al, 2013, Jones et al., 2017). However, research has also shown that sports environments are not safe spaces for LGBTQ youth (Denison & Kitchen, 2015; Greenspan et al., 2017; Kosciw et al., 2017) and that LGBTQ youth are less likely to participate in sports than non-LGBTQ youth (Doull et al, 2018; Greytak et al., 2016; Mereish & Poteat, 2015). Sports may be even more unsafe for transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) youth, who have to navigate the highly gendered nature of sports, such as teams based on binary gender and gendered locker rooms (Cunningham & Pickett, 2018; Hargie et al., 2017; Kulick et al., 2018).
The current study examines the relationship of sports participation to mental health for LGBTQ youth in general, and further consider whether gender identity may moderate any relationship. Next, we examine whether sports participation rates differ by gender identity, and further examine predictors of sports participation among TGNC youth.
The relationship between gender identity and sports participation on mental health was examined using data from a national survey of 23,001 LGBTQ secondary students about school climate. Nearly half students in the sample (46.3%) identified as transgender or another gender non-conforming identity, and under a third (29.1%) participated in sports.
A series of 2 X 2 ANCOVAs were performed with gender identity and sports participation as main effects, controlling for age, outness, and general extracurricular participation. Mental health was assessed by examining depression (CES-D) and self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). For depression, both main effects were significant. Cisgender students had lower depression scores than TGNC students (F(1, 16271)=720.54), and students who played sports had lower depression scores than did students who did not play sports (F(1, 16271)=22.64. The interaction gender X sports participation was not significant. For self-esteem, there was no main effect of sports participation, but a significant main effect of gender, such that TGNC students had lower self-esteem than cisgender students (F(1, 16289)=18.21). There was also no significant interaction.
Given that TGNC students participated in sports at significantly lower rates than cisgender students (23.7% vs. 33.4%), we explored possible predictors of sports participation among the sample of TGNC students. Results of an exploratory logistic regression (χ2 (28)=211.41) indicated that age (β=-.13), outness (β=.14), avoiding athletic spaces because of feeling unsafe (β=-.36), being prevented or discouraged from playing sports by the school (β=.28), and victimization based on sexual orientation (β=.04) were significantly related to decreased likelihood of sports participation for these students.

Authors

• Caitlin M Clark, GLSEN
  Presenting Author

• Joseph G. Kosciw, GLSEN
  Non-Presenting Author