Exploring rates of transgender individuals and mental health concerns in an online sample

Background: Prevalence estimates of adults identifying as transgender are scarce, particularly in the United States. Method: The current study endeavored to estimate the prevalence of individuals identifying as transgender in a large online sample of adult U.S. residents (n = 6,727) and compare the prevalence of common mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) and the age of onset for individuals identifying as men or women versus those identifying as transgender. Results: The prevalence estimate of individuals identifying as transgender was 0.8%. Individuals identifying as transgender were significantly more likely than individuals identifying as men or women to report having had a single diagnosis or co-occurring diagnoses for all three disorders examined. Additionally, transgender individuals were more likely than individuals identifying as men or women to receive a diagnosis of anxiety or depression at a younger age. Conclusion: Given the prevalence of transgender individuals and the associations with common mental health conditions, clinicians must be informed and competent to care for their clinical needs. This study introduces online crowdsourcing resources as a potentially fruitful option for reaching and researching gender diversity.     

Relationships between gender self-esteem,sexual prejudice,and trans prejudice in cisgender heterosexual college students

Our understanding of sexual prejudice, or prejudice against gay men, lesbian women, bisexual people, and other sexual minorities, has improved substantially over the last few decades. Less is known about the factors that predict trans prejudice, or prejudice against trans people. Using the framework of social identity theory, we examined the relationship between gender self-esteem, sexual prejudice toward gay men and lesbian women, and trans prejudice in a sample of 391 self-identified cisgender heterosexual students from a Midwestern university in the United States. Compared to women, men reported more sexual prejudice, trans prejudice, more prejudice toward gay men than lesbian women, and more violence toward, teasing of, and discomfort around trans women than trans men. Whereas both men and women reported more teasing of trans women than of trans men, men reported more discomfort around trans women and women reported more discomfort around trans men. Gender self-esteem significantly predicted sexual prejudice and trans prejudice in men but not women. Consistent with other research, our results indicate that men's sexual prejudice and trans prejudice may be motivated by similar factors, whereas the predictors of women's prejudice may be more specific to the type of prejudice.     

The Primacy of Discourse in the Study of Gender in Family Therapy

Family therapists and scholars increasingly adopt poststructural and postmodern conceptions of social reality, challenging the notion of stable, universal dynamics within family members and families and favoring a view of reality as produced through social interaction. In the study of gender and diversity, many envision differences as social constructed rather than as “residing” in people or groups. There is a growing interest in discourse or people's everyday use of language and how it may reflect and advance interests of dominant groups in a society. Despite this shift from structures to discourse, therapists struggle to locate the dynamics of power in concrete actions and interactions. By leaving undisturbed the social processes through which gendered and other subjectivities and relations of power are produced, therapists may inadvertently become complicit in the very dynamics of power they seek to undermine. In this article, we argue that discourse analysis can help family therapy scholars and practitioners clarify the link between language and power. We present published examples of discourse analytic studies of gender and sexism and examine the relevance of these ideas for family therapy practice and research.     

Impulsivity as a precedent factor for problematic Internet use: How can we be sure?

Previous research has suggested that problematic Internet use (PIU) is associated with impulse control disorder. Although researchers have suggested that impulsivity is a risk factor for PIU, the literature lacks longitudinal evidence on the relationship between impulsivity and PIU. We aimed to use a cross‐lagged analytic framework to identify temporal order effects and hypothesised that impulsivity was the precedent factor for PIU. In a panel sample of college students (N = 367), trait impulsivity and PIU were measured in the spring of freshman year and in their junior year. The measures included a self‐developed PIU Scale and the revised Impulsiveness Scale based on Barratt's concept. We found that “non‐planning impulsivity” was not associated with PIU. The “motor impulsivity” subfactor was thus adopted in the cross‐lagged model. The results suggest that motor impulsivity and PIU were stable across time. Motor impulsivity at Time 1 positively predicted PIU at Time 2, but PIU at Time 1 did not predict motor impulsivity at Time 2. A further investigation using gender as a moderator found a gender difference in the temporal relationship. Because motor impulsivity is a risk factor for PIU, potential prevention strategies based on this result are suggested.     

Impact of gendered ingroup/outgroup ostracism on women’s academic performances

This study investigated the impact of ostracism (vs. inclusion) for women in a same-sex vs. opposite-sex group on their cognitive performances. Female participants played Cyberball with other women or men and were either included or excluded. Participants then had to engage in the performance tasks. Results showed that women’s performance was decreased by ostracism in a math task (but not a verbal task) yet only in the same-sex condition. Furthermore, this result was obtained only among participants who did the numeric task first. No effect was observed in the verbal task. Two replications of the initial study were conducted using the math task. The result of the first study has been replicated one time. A meta-analysis revealed a small effect of ostracism on performance in the ingroup condition, whereas the effect seems to be non-existent in the outgroup condition. Results are discussed and future perspectives are proposed.     

Boys,girls, and the school cultural environment: Teachers’ judgment and students’ values

Due to gender socialization, girls are more likely to endorse self-transcendence values (e.g., helping people) compared to boys, whereas boys are more likely to endorse self-enhancement values (e.g., wanting to be in charge) compared to girls. In two studies, we investigated teachers’ judgment regarding the display of these values in school and students’ endorsement of the self-transcendence and self-enhancement values in two contexts: home and school. In Study 1 (N = 240), teachers evaluated a student perceived as strongly endorsing the self-transcendence values more positively compared to a student perceived as strongly endorsing the self-enhancement values, regardless of the student’s gender. In Study 2 (N = 151), boys endorsed the self-enhancement values more than the self-transcendence values at home, whereas the opposite occurred in the school context. Girls did not vary across contexts, endorsing the self-transcendence values more than the self-enhancement values in both contexts. Possible consequences on boys’ school-related outcomes are discussed.     

Negotiating Ethical Paradoxes in Conducting a Randomized Controlled Trial: Aligning Intervention Science with Participatory Values

In this article, we describe ethical tensions we have faced in the context of our work as intervention scientists, where we aim to promote social justice and change systems that impact girls involved in the juvenile legal system. These ethical tensions are, at their core, about resisting collusion with systems of control while simultaneously collaborating with them. Over the course of designing and implementing a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of an ecological advocacy intervention for girls, called ROSES, ethical paradoxes crystalized and prompted us to engage in critical reflection and action toward the aim of moving away from conducting research on legal‐system‐involved girls and moving toward a more democratic, participatory process of inquiry with girls. Our experience revealed two intertwined paradoxes that ultimately served generative purposes. First, in collaborating with legal system stakeholders, we observed a single story of girls’ pathology narrated for girls, without girls, and ultimately internalized by girls. Second, in reflecting critically on the ethical implications of our study design, it became clear that the design was grounded in a medical model of inquiry although the intervention we sought to evaluate was based, in part, on resistance to the medical model. We describe emergent ethical tensions and the solutions we sought, which center on creating counternarratives and counterspaces that leverage, extend, and disrupt our existing RCT. We detail these solutions, focusing on how we restructured our research team to enhance structural competence, shifted the subject of inquiry to include the systems in which youth are embedded, and created new opportunities for former research participants to become co‐researchers through formal roles on an advisory board.     

Predictors and outcomes of job search behavior: The moderating effects of gender and family situation

This study explored differences in the antecedents and consequences of job search behavior depending on gender and family situation in a large, nationwide sample of the Dutch population. Using Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior (TPB), we found no gender differences in the antecedents of job seeking. However, family situation did affect the relations in the TPB, such that personal attitude was a slightly weaker, and perceived social pressure a stronger predictor of job seeking for individuals with families than for singles. Concerning the consequences, job search behavior significantly predicted the chances of finding (new) employment, but not job satisfaction in the new job and the level of agreement between the obtained and wanted job.     

The spiritual well-being questionnaire: Testing for model applicability, measurement and structural equivalencies, and latent mean differences across gender

Fisher (1998) proposed a spiritual well-being model, comprising primary factors for the domains of personal, communal, environmental and transcendental well-being, that cohere to form a single higher order or global spiritual well-being dimension. In line with this model, Gomez and Fisher (2003) published the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire (SWBQ), with scales for measuring personal, communal, environmental and transcendental spiritual well-being. This study used multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine gender equivalencies of the measurement and structural models of the SWBQ, and the latent mean in the four SWBQ factors. A total of 3101 females and 1361 males, with age ranging from 15 to 32 years, completed the SWBQ. The statistical fit results supported the invariance of the measurement model, and some aspects of the structural model. The practical fit indices results provided support for the invariance of both the measurement and structural models. The results also showed little gender differences. Together, these findings support gender equivalencies for the SWBQ.     

Born lucky? The relationship between feeling lucky and month of birth

Research suggests that season of birth is associated with several psychiatric and neurological disorders, and also with adult monoamine neurotransmitter turnover. Personality traits are modulated in part by neurotransmitters; and population studies show season of birth variations in adult personality traits such as novelty seeking. Also, neurotransmitters are involved in suicidal behavior; and studies have found season of birth associations with suicide methods. The present general population survey was conducted via the Internet, and involved 29,584 self-selected participants (51.6% women) from 67 countries. For those born in the UK (75.6%), we investigated the relationship between season of birth, the participant’s belief in being a lucky person, and personality attributes related to this belief. In both genders and in all age groups, birth during the summer half-year was associated with significantly higher belief in being lucky, as compared to birth during the winter half-year, with a maximum around birth in May and a minimum around birth in November. Women scored significantly higher on listening to intuition and employing techniques to improve intuition, in perseverence, believing in positive long-term outcomes, and chatting to strangers. Men scored significantly higher on feeling lucky, not worrying or dwelling on failures, and expecting good things in life.