Mental Health and Proximal Stressors in Transgender Men and Women

Noelia Fernández-Rouco; Rodrigo J Carcedo; Félix López; M Begoña Orgaz

doi:10.3390/jcm8030413

Mental Health and Proximal Stressors in Transgender Men and Women

J Clin Med. 2019 Mar 25;8(3):413. doi: 10.3390/jcm8030413.

Authors

Noelia Fernández-Rouco¹, Rodrigo J Carcedo², Félix López³, M Begoña Orgaz⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Education, Faculty of Education University of Cantabria, Av. de Los Castros s/n, 39005 Santander, Spain. fernandezrn@unican.es.
² Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Av. Merced 109-131, 37005 Salamanca, Spain. rcarcedo@usal.es.
³ Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Av. Merced 109-131, 37005 Salamanca, Spain. flopez@usal.es.
⁴ Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Av. Merced 109-131, 37005 Salamanca, Spain. borgaz@usal.es.

Abstract

This paper explores the subjective perception of some personal and interpersonal aspects of the lives of transgender people and the relationship they have with their mental health. One hundred and twenty transgender people (60 men and 60 women) participated in semi-structured interviews. Following quantitative methodology, analysis highlighted that social loneliness is the main predictor of lower levels of mental health (anxiety and depression) for both genders and recognized romantic loneliness as the strongest factor among transgender men. In both cases, higher levels of loneliness were associated with lower levels of mental health. The results have guided us to improve institutional and social responses and have provided an opportunity to promote the mental health of transgender people.

Keywords: anxiety; depression; romantic loneliness; social loneliness; transgender.