| Poster | Poster Session 05 Program Schedule
02/15/2024
02:30 pm - 03:45 pm
Room: Shubert Complex (Posters 1-60)
Poster Session 05: Neuropsychiatry | Addiction/Dependence | Stress/Coping | Emotional/Social Processes
Final Abstract #7
The Collective Impact of Stigma: How Ageism, Cisgenderism, Racism, and Heterosexism Affect Depression Symptoms in Transgender and Cisgender Individuals?
Anna Egbert, Psychology Department at St. Joseph's University New York, Brooklyn, United States
Caroline Kocher, Psychology Department at St. Joseph's University New York, Brooklyn, United States
Isa-Marie Kreuzinger, Psychology Department at St. Joseph's University New York, Brooklyn, United States
Mark Brennan-Ing, Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College, City University of New York, New York, United States
BRAID Lab, Psychology Department at St. Joseph's University New York, Brooklyn, United States
Category: Emotional and Social Processes
Keyword 1: diversity
Keyword 2: depression
Keyword 3: minority issues
Objective:
To disclose the role of cumulative vs. independent effects of each of the four stigmas (i.e., ageism, cisgenderism, racism, and heterosexism) in the etiology of depression in transgender individuals.
Participants and Methods:
92 participants were retained from a larger research project. Our subsample included 31 transgender individuals (age M=29, SD=6; 55% people of color; 71% males at birth; 55% heterosexual) and 61 cisgender individuals (age M=34, SD=9; 21% people of color; 34% males at birth; 84% heterosexual) who filled out our online survey. Questionnaires adapted from the Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire-Community Version assessed ageism, cisgenderism, racism, and heterosexism. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) examined depressive symptoms. Hierarchical regression modeling analyzed cumulative/independent effects of stigmas on depressive symptoms separately in transgender and cisgender individuals, while accounting for age, sex at birth, education level, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation.
Results:
We found that the level of cumulative lifetime experience of all four stigmas, the experience of four individual stigmas, and the severity of depressive symptoms were statistically comparable between transgender and cisgender groups. On average, both groups reported experiencing particular stigmas quite often and exhibited moderate depressive symptoms (transgender total PHQ-9 score M=11, SD=5; cisgender M=12, SD=5; T-test=1.15, p=.254). The most comprehensive regression model explained 76% of the variability in depressive symptoms in transgender individuals, while 53% in cisgender individuals. In both groups, cumulative experience of stigmas was the most important factor (in transgender B=0.044, p=.001, CI95%=.021–.066; and in cisgender B=0.034, p=.001, CI95%=.014–.055). Other regression models found the effect of the experience of ageism on depressive symptoms only in transgender people (B=0.130, p=.043, CI95%=.005–.256).
Conclusions:
This is a unique study that analyzed the link between stigma experience and depression in highly diverse samples of transgender and cisgender individuals. While both groups reported comparable levels of often experiencing various stigmas and both showed moderate depressive symptoms, it was the transgender group that revealed a stronger relationship between these two factors. Furthermore, the cumulative lifetime exposure to various types of stigma seems to be more explanatory of the severity of current depressive symptoms than independent effects of any of the stigma types. Interestingly, it was the experience of ageism that was particularly influential over the depressive symptoms in transgender individuals. Together, these findings suggest that more diverse individuals are at an increased risk of cumulative stigma and thus more severe depressive symptoms.
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