Thursday, October 20, 2011
Phase 2 comparison...
We had such a good response to the first phase of the study, that we decided to create a similar survey for gathering information about the quality of life of individuals who do not identify as transgender as a comparison group. Over the summer, we sent out a new survey link to the same folks we originally sent the first survey to. I am happy to report that we have now got over 100 responses to the phase two survey! We are still waiting for more responses, but will be posting a summary of results here as soon as they become available. Preliminary results look interesting - stay tuned!
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Results!
Thank you all so much for your participation! Ultimately, we got a total of 116 responses to our survey from 31 states and 5 countries. Some of the findings from the study were consistent with the existing literature about risk factors for transgender individuals, other bits of information were somewhat unexpected.
I have posted some of the key findings here, and the discussion portion of our study. Please feel free to contact us (leave a comment) if you have any questions about the study, or any ideas to share.
Key Research Findings:
Discussion of research results:
Findings suggest that, overall, there are a number of variables that contribute to or detract from the quality of life of transgendered individuals. There are many categories of how people identify under the “transgender” umbrella, and tracking survey responses by gender identification did not garner much information. However, using birth sex data, it became apparent that the majority of respondents (80%) were born female. Typically, there is more mention of male to female cases of transgendered individuals (MTF) in mainstream society as a whole, although in reality, it is likely that there are roughly equal proportions of male and female born individuals wo identify as transgender.
The finding of significantly lower Quality of Life scores among transgendered individuals who identified their age of realization as between the ages of 11-15 highlights the need for early support and intervention for young people struggling to understand their gender identity. This age range is well known as a socially difficult developmental phase in the lives of children in our society. It is possible that things like bullying, social exclusion, and the inability to “fit in” with peers at these ages seriously impacts a transgender youngster’s ability to develop the social connections and coping skills that contribute to his/her overall quality of life as an adult. More study is needed in this area to determine what factors in childhood are carrying on into adulthood, impacting transgender adults’ life experiences.
Social connectedness, and its positive relationship to participant reports of quality of life in this study, is a finding consistent with past research. Social connectedness is a well known protective factor for many things, and it is no surprise that respondents reporting better relationships and more social support also score higher on the Quality of Life measure. Although more research could be done to isolate the most effective connections an individual can have to improve his/her quality of life, it is more important to put this knowledge into practice by improving social support and access for transgendered individuals, particularly those in the early stages of exploring gender identity. Positive, transgender friendly changes in social policy would be useful in improving acceptance and safety in the social environment, making communities and social connections more accessable to transgender individuals.
The finding that there appears to be no significant relationship between overall experiences of victimization and Quality of Life score was somewhat unexpected, although not as surprising as the relationship between the experience of sexual abuse or assault and increased Quality of Life scores. It is possible that, in this sample, the relationship between sexual abuse/assault experience and Quality of Life score is a finding that will not be repeatable in another study, and that the pooled data about victimization as a whole was skewed by these potentially unusual data points. Repeating the study with a new, larger sample would be helpful in sorting this question out.
The relationship discovered between a participant’s Quality of Life score and reports of depressive symptoms is not surprising, as depression (and other forms of mental illness) can drastically impact an individual’s perspective and outlook on life. Also not surprising were the relationships discovered between past substance use and exposure to violence and sexual abuse and assault, as this pattern has been present in other studies. Interestingly, there was no relationship detected between respondents’ current substance use patterns and past experiences of violence or sex abuse/assault. It is possible that the sample contained a substantial number of individuals in recovery from substance abuse, or that reports of current substance use were not reported accurately.
The primary goal of this research project was to assess which factors influence the quality of life amongst the transgendered population. Based on the findings from this research, there is a significant relationship between the subjective perceptions of feeling connected to family, friends, a faith community and the transgender community and overall quality of life of transgendered individuals. It appears that when respondents feel more connected to their family, friends and communities, their perception of their quality of life is greater. In addition, this study assessed the relationship between violence, both physical and sexual, and found that there was no negative impact on respondents’ quality of life. In fact, the findings from this research indicated that sexual abuse experiences actually increased quality of life on behalf of respondents. Previous studies reviewed for this project focused on the prevalence of violence in its many forms, as well as its impact on mental and physical health of transgendered individuals compared to the general population. However, the current research findings do not reflect the patterns found in previously reviewed studies.
The limitations of this study primarily come from the snowball sampling technique employed in finding survey participants. It is not clear how representative this sample is of the transgendered population at large. Despite this potential limitation, it is notable to mention that respondents came from a wide geographic area of 31 states and 5 countries.
Findings from this research suggest that feelings of connectedness to family, friends, and communities, along with age of realization, are major factors which contribute to the overall subjective quality of life experiences of transgender individuals. These findings have significant implications for social work practice, particularly in the areas of intervention strategies that may be used to reduce social risk factors among transgendered individuals. As advocates, service providers and educators, social workers can tailor intervention techniques to better meet the needs of the transgender population. The findings of this study are especially important for schools, counselors, parents, and anyone who works with children, as this is an extremely crucial point in a child’s life in terms of gender identity and its impact on adult reports of quality of life.
I have posted some of the key findings here, and the discussion portion of our study. Please feel free to contact us (leave a comment) if you have any questions about the study, or any ideas to share.
Key Research Findings:
- In a sample of 116 survey participants, 80% of respondents were born female.
- Transgender individuals who report initially recognizing their gender expression to be different from peers between the ages of 11-15 years old are significantly more likely to have lower Quality of Life scores than those who report discovering this between the ages of 0-10 years old.
- There is a significant relationship between an individual’s sense of connectedness to family, friends, communities and his/her subjective assessment of quality of life. The greater the sense of connectedness, the greater the Quality of Life score.
- Individuals who reported a history of past experiences of violence and victimization had lower reported Quality of Life scores, although not low enough to be significantly different from those who reported no history of victimization.
- Sexual abuse or assault survivors had significantly higher Quality of Life scores than those who reported no history of these experiences.
- There appears to be a significant relationship between increased reports of depressive symptomology and overall lower Quality of Life scores.
- Reports of past substance use appear to be significantly related to past experiences of both violence and sexual abuse/assault.
- Participants who were born male were most likely to cite their gender transition as one of the current three best things in their life. All of these participants also reported initially recognizing their gender expression was different from peers between the ages of 0-10 years of age. 67% of this group also reported a past history of experiences of violence and victimization.
- Of participants reporting hobbies and recreation among their current top three best things in life, 81% also reported their overall health status as good to excellent. Of participants reporting family relationships among their current top three best things in life, 79% also reported their overall health status as good to excellent.
Discussion of research results:
Findings suggest that, overall, there are a number of variables that contribute to or detract from the quality of life of transgendered individuals. There are many categories of how people identify under the “transgender” umbrella, and tracking survey responses by gender identification did not garner much information. However, using birth sex data, it became apparent that the majority of respondents (80%) were born female. Typically, there is more mention of male to female cases of transgendered individuals (MTF) in mainstream society as a whole, although in reality, it is likely that there are roughly equal proportions of male and female born individuals wo identify as transgender.
The finding of significantly lower Quality of Life scores among transgendered individuals who identified their age of realization as between the ages of 11-15 highlights the need for early support and intervention for young people struggling to understand their gender identity. This age range is well known as a socially difficult developmental phase in the lives of children in our society. It is possible that things like bullying, social exclusion, and the inability to “fit in” with peers at these ages seriously impacts a transgender youngster’s ability to develop the social connections and coping skills that contribute to his/her overall quality of life as an adult. More study is needed in this area to determine what factors in childhood are carrying on into adulthood, impacting transgender adults’ life experiences.
Social connectedness, and its positive relationship to participant reports of quality of life in this study, is a finding consistent with past research. Social connectedness is a well known protective factor for many things, and it is no surprise that respondents reporting better relationships and more social support also score higher on the Quality of Life measure. Although more research could be done to isolate the most effective connections an individual can have to improve his/her quality of life, it is more important to put this knowledge into practice by improving social support and access for transgendered individuals, particularly those in the early stages of exploring gender identity. Positive, transgender friendly changes in social policy would be useful in improving acceptance and safety in the social environment, making communities and social connections more accessable to transgender individuals.
The finding that there appears to be no significant relationship between overall experiences of victimization and Quality of Life score was somewhat unexpected, although not as surprising as the relationship between the experience of sexual abuse or assault and increased Quality of Life scores. It is possible that, in this sample, the relationship between sexual abuse/assault experience and Quality of Life score is a finding that will not be repeatable in another study, and that the pooled data about victimization as a whole was skewed by these potentially unusual data points. Repeating the study with a new, larger sample would be helpful in sorting this question out.
The relationship discovered between a participant’s Quality of Life score and reports of depressive symptoms is not surprising, as depression (and other forms of mental illness) can drastically impact an individual’s perspective and outlook on life. Also not surprising were the relationships discovered between past substance use and exposure to violence and sexual abuse and assault, as this pattern has been present in other studies. Interestingly, there was no relationship detected between respondents’ current substance use patterns and past experiences of violence or sex abuse/assault. It is possible that the sample contained a substantial number of individuals in recovery from substance abuse, or that reports of current substance use were not reported accurately.
The primary goal of this research project was to assess which factors influence the quality of life amongst the transgendered population. Based on the findings from this research, there is a significant relationship between the subjective perceptions of feeling connected to family, friends, a faith community and the transgender community and overall quality of life of transgendered individuals. It appears that when respondents feel more connected to their family, friends and communities, their perception of their quality of life is greater. In addition, this study assessed the relationship between violence, both physical and sexual, and found that there was no negative impact on respondents’ quality of life. In fact, the findings from this research indicated that sexual abuse experiences actually increased quality of life on behalf of respondents. Previous studies reviewed for this project focused on the prevalence of violence in its many forms, as well as its impact on mental and physical health of transgendered individuals compared to the general population. However, the current research findings do not reflect the patterns found in previously reviewed studies.
The limitations of this study primarily come from the snowball sampling technique employed in finding survey participants. It is not clear how representative this sample is of the transgendered population at large. Despite this potential limitation, it is notable to mention that respondents came from a wide geographic area of 31 states and 5 countries.
Findings from this research suggest that feelings of connectedness to family, friends, and communities, along with age of realization, are major factors which contribute to the overall subjective quality of life experiences of transgender individuals. These findings have significant implications for social work practice, particularly in the areas of intervention strategies that may be used to reduce social risk factors among transgendered individuals. As advocates, service providers and educators, social workers can tailor intervention techniques to better meet the needs of the transgender population. The findings of this study are especially important for schools, counselors, parents, and anyone who works with children, as this is an extremely crucial point in a child’s life in terms of gender identity and its impact on adult reports of quality of life.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
More survey responses!!!
...67, to be exact! YAY! Please keep referring your friends and family - the more responses we get, the better! (More people participating means more information to crunch numbers on to see if there are any patterns - patterns are more reliable if there are more numbers to crunch :)
Thank you!
Thank you!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Survey is up!!
And we are getting responses! Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to either complete our survey, or has forwarded the link on to your friends and family. We are very excited to have finally received the approval of the UMaine IRB last week, and have sent the survey link out to everyone we know to start the "snowball." (FYI - a "snowball" is a sampling technique used in social science research to reach out to populations that are hard to locate or identify - more info about this technique can be found here, or here.)
Please: if you have taken the survey, or have friends or family that might be interested, send them the link! Your help is pivotal to the success of our study. If you do not have the original email or Facebook posting you were forwarded, but want to refer friends and family, I have added a link to the survey on the right side of this page above the resource list so you can send a link to this blog and folks will be able to get to the survey from here...
Please: if you have taken the survey, or have friends or family that might be interested, send them the link! Your help is pivotal to the success of our study. If you do not have the original email or Facebook posting you were forwarded, but want to refer friends and family, I have added a link to the survey on the right side of this page above the resource list so you can send a link to this blog and folks will be able to get to the survey from here...
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Resources for Help
In doing the research for our study and creating our survey, we recognized that some people may find the subject matter we ask about to be somewhat of a sensitive set of topics. If you completed our survey, then you may remember seeing some information, both before and after the questions, about resources for help, support, and information.
Just in case you forgot to write it all down, we are posting it here for you to use. As we come up with other interesting or helpful resources, we will post those as well. In the meantime, here's a recap from the survey itself:
GLBT National Help Center 1-888-843-4564 - (for general information, peer counseling and resources)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK(8255) - (24/7 crisis/suicide prevention assistance)
Maine Statewide Mental Health Crisis 1-888-568-1112 - (24/7 crisis/suicide prevention assistance)
Maine Transgender Network (www.mainetransnet.org) is also a source of information for transgender individuals living in Maine, and the website has information about local support groups and other resources.
Just in case you forgot to write it all down, we are posting it here for you to use. As we come up with other interesting or helpful resources, we will post those as well. In the meantime, here's a recap from the survey itself:
GLBT National Help Center 1-888-843-4564 - (for general information, peer counseling and resources)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK(8255) - (24/7 crisis/suicide prevention assistance)
Maine Statewide Mental Health Crisis 1-888-568-1112 - (24/7 crisis/suicide prevention assistance)
Maine Transgender Network (www.mainetransnet.org) is also a source of information for transgender individuals living in Maine, and the website has information about local support groups and other resources.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Welcome to the Transgender Quality of Life Social Work Research Project Blog!
Glad you found us! We are a group of four graduate students in the Master of Social Work program at the University of Maine, and we are working on a research project in our final year of the MSW program, looking at factors that influence how transgender individuals' social and personal life experiences may impact their view of the overall quality of their lives.
When we decided to do this project, we were aware that people who identify as transgendered in our society generally face more social discrimination than the rest of the population, and that relationships with family and friends can become more difficult and strained over gender and sexual identity differences. As a group of four lesbians, we are all deeply aware of the experiences faced by sexual minorities in our society. We also recognize that transgender individuals are at an even higher risk being ostracized and experiencing social backlash than gay and lesbian individuals. So, with this knowledge, we set out to explore how these sometimes devastating experiences might impact how transgender people rate the quality of their lives overall.
Ultimately, we believe that everyone should live a life free of discrimination, violence and oppression. Because the majority of research we found on this topic looked at the GLBTQ population as a whole, we felt that the unique experience of transgender individuals needed more attention. While gender and sexuality are often lumped together as one "issue," we are aware that the two are actually quite different, even though they often flow together to some degree.
Thank you again for taking the time to complete the Transgender Quality of Life Survey! We hope that, with your help, we are able to contribute some valuable information to the field of Social Work that will bring us all one step closer to a safer, kinder, more tolerant society. And, please - pass the survey on to anyone you may know who would be interested in sharing information with us - the more people we reach, the better!
When we decided to do this project, we were aware that people who identify as transgendered in our society generally face more social discrimination than the rest of the population, and that relationships with family and friends can become more difficult and strained over gender and sexual identity differences. As a group of four lesbians, we are all deeply aware of the experiences faced by sexual minorities in our society. We also recognize that transgender individuals are at an even higher risk being ostracized and experiencing social backlash than gay and lesbian individuals. So, with this knowledge, we set out to explore how these sometimes devastating experiences might impact how transgender people rate the quality of their lives overall.
Ultimately, we believe that everyone should live a life free of discrimination, violence and oppression. Because the majority of research we found on this topic looked at the GLBTQ population as a whole, we felt that the unique experience of transgender individuals needed more attention. While gender and sexuality are often lumped together as one "issue," we are aware that the two are actually quite different, even though they often flow together to some degree.
Thank you again for taking the time to complete the Transgender Quality of Life Survey! We hope that, with your help, we are able to contribute some valuable information to the field of Social Work that will bring us all one step closer to a safer, kinder, more tolerant society. And, please - pass the survey on to anyone you may know who would be interested in sharing information with us - the more people we reach, the better!
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