Exploring Individual and Structural Factors Associated with Employment Among Young Transgender Women of Color Using a No-Cost Transgender Legal Resource Center.

Brandon J Hill,Kris Rosentel,Laura Salazar,Michael Silverman,Michele Kipke,Trevor Bak,Richard Crosby

doi:10.1089/trgh.2016.0034

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore individual and structural factors associated with employment among young transgender women (TW) of color.Methods: Sixty-five trans women of color were recruited from the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund to complete a 30-min interviewer-assisted survey assessing sociodemographics, housing, workplace discrimination, job-seeking self-efficacy, self-esteem, perceived public passability, and transactional sex work.Results: Logistic regression models revealed that stable housing (structural factor) and job-seeking self-efficacy (individual factor) were significantly associated with currently being employed.Conclusion: Our findings underscore the need for multilevel approaches to assist TW of color gain employment.

Highlights

Transgender women (TW; trans women) face immense social and economic marginalization and experience a host of health disparities, trans women of color
Such stark disparities in HIV infection cannot be attributed to individual level behavior alone, but are situated in larger social and structural contexts that proximate young trans women of color to increased HIV exposure, including social and economic marginalization.[2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
The interaction between the individual and social and structural factors associated with health has been described by syndemic theory, or the synergistic interplay between co-occurring health problems and the social environment of a specific group or community.[10]

Summary

Introduction

Transgender women (TW; trans women) face immense social and economic marginalization and experience a host of health disparities, trans women of color. The interaction between the individual and social and structural factors associated with health has been described by syndemic theory, or the synergistic interplay between co-occurring health problems and the social environment of a specific group or community.[10] One key premise of syndemic theory is that adverse social conditions determine the concentration of poor health outcomes.[10] using a syndemic framework, previous research has demonstrated that health problems among trans women may be determined by adverse social and structural factors.[11,12,13,14,15,16,17] despite increased legal protections and rights for lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, few laws protect transgender people from discrimination, including a Brandon J.

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Results