Abstract
Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people are disproportionately impacted by various health issues and associated risk factors, but little is known about differences in these outcomes between gender identities within the TGD population. This study characterized the health of a diverse sample of TGD youth and young adults. Data were taken from the baseline visit of two longitudinal studies in the Chicago area, RADAR (N = 1079, M age = 20.8 years) and FAB 400 (N = 488, M age = 19.57 years), which are cohorts of young sexual and gender minorities assigned male at birth (AMAB) and assigned female at birth (AFAB), respectively. There was a combined sample of 214 TGD (128 AFAB, 86 AMAB) individuals across cohorts. We examined differences between gender identities in self-reported health and related psychosocial variables, and compared TGD youth and their cisgender sexual minority peers from their cohort of origin on all variables. Among TGD youth, we found high rates of depression and suicidality (ideation, plan, attempt), violence (trauma, victimization, childhood sexual abuse), and substance use (cigarette, alcohol, illicit drug use). With the exception of depression, transgender women and non-binary AMAB youth reported worse health outcomes than transgender men and non-binary AFAB youth. Non-binary AMAB youth reported the highest rates of certain outcomes, including traumatic experiences and suicidal ideation. TGD youth generally reported worse outcomes than cisgender sexual minority youth; these differences were less pronounced among AFAB youth. Findings point to the diversity of experiences within the TGD population and critical needs for intervention approaches to mitigate health disparities.
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This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (U01DA036939; PI: B. Mustanski) and the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development (R01HD086170; PI: S. Whitton). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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Newcomb, M.E., Hill, R., Buehler, K. et al. High Burden of Mental Health Problems, Substance Use, Violence, and Related Psychosocial Factors in Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Diverse Youth and Young Adults. Arch Sex Behav 49, 645–659 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01533-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01533-9