Internalized Transphobia, Resilience, and Mental Health: Applying the Psychological Mediation Framework to Italian Transgender Individuals

• Main Authors: Cristiano Scandurra, Vincenzo Bochicchio, Anna Lisa Amodeo, Concetta Esposito, Paolo Valerio, Nelson Mauro Maldonato, Dario Bacchini, Roberto Vitelli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-03-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: internalized transphobia; resilience; mental health; mediation; transgender
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/3/508

Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people are a highly-stigmatized population. For this reason, they might internalize society’s normative gender attitudes and develop negative mental health outcomes. As an extension of the minority stress model, the psychological mediation framework sheds light on psychological processes through which anti-transgender discrimination might affect mental health. Within this framework, the current study aimed at assessing in 149 TGNC Italian individuals the role of internalized transphobia as a mediator between anti-transgender discrimination and mental health, considering resilience as the individual-level coping mechanism buffering this relationship. The results suggest that both indicators of internalized transphobia (i.e., shame and alienation) mediate the relationship between anti-transgender discrimination and depression, while only alienation mediates the relationship between anti-transgender discrimination and anxiety. Furthermore, the results suggest that the indirect relation between anti-transgender discrimination and anxiety through alienation is conditional on low and moderate levels of resilience. Findings have important implications for clinical practice and psycho-social interventions to reduce stigma and stress caused by interpersonal and individual stigma.