Risk and Resilience During Transgender Identity Development: The Effects of Awareness and Engagement with Other Transgender People on Affect

Research examining risk and resilience among transgender individuals suggests that connection to a transgender community may be protective. Utilizing archival survey data of 3,087 adult transgender participants collected in 2005–06, this study further evaluated how awareness and engagement with other transgender people influences risk and resilience during early gender identity development. As hypothesized, among male-to-female and female-to-male respondents, both prior awareness and prior engagement with other transgender people were independently related to less fearfulness, less suicidality, and more comfort. These relationships were not significant among male-to-different-gender or female-to-different-gender participants. Implications of these findings are discussed.