Seeking help when transgender: Exploring the difference in mental and physical health seeking behaviors between transgender and cisgender individuals in Ireland

Abstract

Background: While there is growing awareness of the need to support the physical and mental wellbeing of transgender people, some may be reluctant to seek help from healthcare professionals. Little is understood about the mechanisms that influence help-seeking behavior in this group.

Aims: This study aimed to compare transgender and cisgender participants in their likelihood to seek help for both physical and mental health conditions, and to explore whether this help-seeking behavior is predicted by a range of sociodemographic and psychological variables.

Methods: 123 participants living in Ireland (cisgender= 67; transgender= 56) completed a questionnaire which included demographic questions, as well as measures of optimism (LOT-R), self-esteem (RSES), psychological distress (GHQ-12), attitudes towards seeking psychological help (ATSPPH-SF), and attitudes towards seeking help for a physical health problem (Attitudes Towards Seeking Medical Help Scale- Action/Intervention subscale). Associations between predictor variables and mental and physical health seeking were explored using correlation analysis and stepwise regressions.

Results: Transgender participants were less likely to seek help for a physical health issue than cisgender participants, but did not differ in mental health help-seeking behaviors. Results suggest that this may be due to differences in optimism, self-esteem and psychological distress. Transgender participants had significantly lower optimism and self-esteem, which were two factors linked to poorer physical health seeking behaviors. Optimism also emerged as a significant predictor in mental health seeking behaviors.

Discussion: The lack of a significant difference for mental health help-seeking between the transgender and cisgender participants is encouraging, as it suggests that there is less stigma surrounding mental illness than expected, however findings also contradict previous findings suggesting that physical health is less stigmatized. This could be due to stigma relating to gender-specific healthcare and suggests that healthcare professionals should acknowledge the specific healthcare needs and concerns among transgender individuals.     

Pilot Effectiveness of a Stress Management Program for Sheltered Homeless Adults With Mental Illness: A Two-Group Controlled Study

This study examined the effectiveness of a stress management intervention for sheltered homeless adults with mental illness. Twelve intervention participants received a 6-week, 1-hour psychoeducation group combined with a 20-minute meditation. Eleven matched pairs did not receive intervention and served as controls. At 1 week post study, intervention participants reported a statistically significant reduction in perceived stress (Z=??2.285, p < .02, d=??1.176) compared to controls. No differences were found at 1 week post study between intervention and control participants on reported quality of life. This study provides pilot data on the effectiveness of an occupation-based stress management program for sheltered homeless adults and warrants further study.     

Identity as a moderator of gender differences in the emotional closeness of emerging adults' same- and cross-sex friendships

Closeness is an integral aspect of friendships, and males and females differ in their closeness experiences within these relationships. However, identity development and friendship type (e.g., same-sex versus cross-sex friendships) may moderate these gender differences. In an attempt to clarify the relationships among gender, identity, and friendship closeness, the current study examined gender and identity associations with reported emotional closeness in emerging adults' same- and cross-sex friendships. Responses from 181 college undergraduates (89 males and 92 females) indicated similar levels of emotional closeness reported for same- and cross-sex friendships. Results also indicated overall identity commitment and friendship identity commitment associations with same-sex friendship closeness. Examination of closeness reports for cross-sex friends revealed a significant association with overall identity commitment for emerging adult males. A significant association was not indicated for emerging adult females. The associations between identity and emotional closeness in same-sex friendships and male cross-sex friendships support previous studies that report differences in the role of these relationships for emerging adult males and females. Findings are discussed in terms of understanding the gender and identity differences in emerging adults' reports of friendship closeness.     

Varieties of grapheme-colour synaesthesia: a new theory of phenomenological and behavioural differences

Recent research has suggested that not all grapheme-colour synaesthetes are alike. One suggestion is that they can be divided, phenomenologically, in terms of whether the colours are experienced in external or internal space (projector–associator distinction). Another suggestion is that they can be divided according to whether it is the perceptual or conceptual attributes of a stimulus that is critical (higher–lower distinction). This study compares the behavioural performance of 7 projector and 7 associator synaesthetes. We demonstrate that this distinction does not map on to behavioural traits expected from the higher–lower distinction. We replicate previous research showing that projectors are faster at naming their synaesthetic colours than veridical colours, and that associators show the reverse profile. Synaesthetes who project colours into external space but not on to the surface of the grapheme behave like associators on this task. In a second task, graphemes presented briefly in the periphery are more likely to elicit reports of colour in projectors than associators, but the colours only tend to be accurate when the grapheme itself is also accurately identified. We propose an alternative model of individual differences in grapheme-colour synaesthesia that emphasises the role of different spatial reference frames in synaesthetic perception. In doing so, we attempt to bring the synaesthesia literature closer to current models of non-synaesthetic perception, attention and binding.     

Team cognition in experienced command-and-control teams

Team cognition in experienced command-and-control teams is examined in an UAV (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle) simulation. Five 3-person teams with experience working together in a command-and-control setting were compared to 10 inexperienced teams. Each team participated in five 40-min missions of a simulation in which interdependent team members control a UAV to take reconnaissance photos. Experienced teams exceeded performance of inexperienced teams, suggesting transfer of previous command-and-control experience. Compared to inexperienced teams, experienced teams had fewer errors on process-related training knowledge, superior team process ratings, and communications containing fewer coordination-related utterances. These findings support the view that team cognition emerges through the interactions of team members, that interactions distinguish high-performing teams from average teams, and that these interactions transfer across different tasks.     

Parenting styles or practices? Parenting, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors among adolescents

In the present study, the authors examined the relations among parenting styles, parental practices, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors in adolescents. The participants were 233 adolescents (M age = 16.7 years; 69% girls; mostly White) from public high schools in the Midwestern region of the United States who completed measures of prosocial behaviors, parenting styles, parenting practices, and sympathy. Overall, the authors found evidence that parenting practices were significantly associated with adolescents' prosocial behaviors. However, the associations between parenting practices and prosocial behaviors occurred mostly through the indirect relations with sympathy. The relations among parenting practices, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors varied as a function of the specific parenting practice and the specific prosocial behavior. Implications for future research on the study of prosocial development and parenting among adolescents are discussed.     

Using dual-process theory and analogical transfer to explain facilitation on a hypothetico-deductive reasoning task

Using the analogical transfer paradigm, the present study investigated the competing explanations of Girotto and Legrenzi (Psychological Research 51: 129–135, 1993) and Griggs, Platt, Newstead, and Jackson (Thinking and Reasoning 4: 1–14, 1998) for facilitation on the SARS version of the THOG problem, a hypothetico-deductive reasoning task. Girotto and Legrenzi argue that facilitation is based on logical analysis of the task [System 2 reasoning in Evans’s (Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7: 454–459, 2003) dual-process account of reasoning] while Griggs et al. maintain that facilitation is due to an attentional heuristic produced by the wording of the problem (System 1 reasoning). If Girotto and Legrenzi are correct, then System 2 reasoning, which is volitional and responsible for deductive reasoning, should be elicited, and participants should comprehend the solution principle of the THOG task and exhibit analogical transfer. However, if Griggs et al. are correct, then System 1 reasoning, which is responsible for heuristic problem solving strategies such as an attentional heuristic, should occur, and participants should not abstract the solution principle and transfer should not occur. Significant facilitation (68 and 82% correct) was only observed for the two SARS source problems, but significant analogical transfer did not occur. This lack of transfer suggests that System 1 reasoning was responsible for the facilitation observed in the SARS problem, supporting Griggs et al.’s attentional heuristic explanation. The present results also underscore the explanatory value of using analogical transfer rather than facilitation as the criterion for problem understanding.     

Gender gaps in sociopolitical attitudes: a social psychological analysis

This research examined the proposition that differential role occupancy by women and men fosters gender gaps in sociopolitical attitudes. Analyses of the General Social Survey (J. A. Davis & T. W. Smith, 1998) and a community sample showed that women, more than men, endorsed policies that are socially compassionate, traditionally moral, and supportive of equal rights for women and for gays and lesbians. To clarify the sources of these gaps, the research examined (a) similarities between gender gaps and gaps associated with other respondent attributes such as race and parenthood, (b) interactions between respondent sex and other attributes, (c) the temporal patterning of gender gaps, and (d) the mediation of attitudinal gender gaps by 3 ideological variables--commitment to equality, group-based dominance, and conservatism versus liberalism.     

Somatic and social: Chinese Americans talk about emotion

Empirical findings suggest that Chinese and Americans differ in the ways that they describe emotional experience, with Chinese using more somatic and social words than Americans. No one, however, has investigated whether this variation is related to differences between Chinese and American conceptions of emotion or to linguistic differences between the English and Chinese languages. Therefore, in two studies, the authors compared the word use of individuals who varied in their orientation to Chinese and American cultures (European Americans [EA], more acculturated Chinese Americans [CA], and less acculturated CA) when they were speaking English during emotional events. Across both studies, less acculturated CA used more somatic (e.g., dizzy) and more social (e.g., friend) words than EA. These findings suggest that even when controlling for language spoken, cultural conceptions of emotion may shape how people talk about emotion.