Título del libro: Advances In Psychology Research
Título del capítulo: Stressors, coping mechanisms and facilitators along the development of transgender-women identity
REBECA ROBLES GARCIA;
Autores externos:
Idioma:
Año de publicación:
2023
Palabras clave:
Coping; Gender identity; Identity development; Minority stress; Transgender
Resumen:
Gender identity, one of the fundamental individual identities, refers to the extent to which a person experiences oneself to be male or female. In most cases, it develops in accordance with physical sex characteristics, which might induce stigma and discrimination to gender identity minorities. Transgender identity, one of the most frequent gender identity minorities, is characterized by a marked incongruence between experienced gender and physical sex/assigned gender. Given identity development is an individual as well as a social process at which identity shapes and is molded by the surrounding milieu, stressors, coping mechanisms and facilitators of gender identity development might vary between normative and non-normative identities. This chapter presents a qualitative study on individual and social stressors, positive and negative coping mechanisms, and facilitators along the development of transgender-women identity from the perspective of 9 transgender women (>18 years old). The participants agreed to complete an individual semi-structured interview about their gender-related experiences during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The interviews lasted approximately 90 minutes and were audio recorded for further analysis by three researchers using meaning categorization. Categories used in the final analysis were: 1) Individual stressors (with two sub-themes: psychological and physical), Social stressors (with three subthemes: family, peers, others), coping mechanisms (with two subthemes: neutral/positive and negative), and social facilitators (with two subthemes: social support, medical services). Psychological stressors include cognitions and emotions that hinder the development of transgender identity. During childhood, they were often related to the confusion between gender and birth sex or between gender identity and sexual orientation, whereas in adolescence, the most frequently reported stressor was that of worthlessness. The most frequent physical stressor during both childhood and adolescence was genitalia of biological sex at birth. However, secondary sexual characteristics were also highly stressful during adolescence. Family was the most frequent source of social stressors, defined as actions and omissions of others in relation to individual female gender expression. Social stressors ranged from prohibitions and verbal violence to exclusion, involuntary hormone treatment, and physical and sexual violence. During childhood, the most common coping mechanism employed to deal with gender dysphoria was praying, while in adolescence, restrictive diets were commonplace. Most social support came from women (mothers and teachers), and hormonal treatment was perceived as one of the most useful resources to reduce gender dysphoria. It can be concluded that individual and social tensions along transgender identity development impose great suffering, which might be preventable through specific actions and programs considering the spheres of both positive and negative influences in the development of transgender identity. © 2023 Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
Entidades citadas de la UNAM:
ISBN:
9798891132528
Editorial:
Nova Science Publishers, Inc. Nombre de la publicación:
Stressors, coping mechanisms and facilitators along the development of transgender-women identity
Página inicial:
141
Página final:
154
Tipo de producto:
Capítulo de un Libro
