Frequency and mental health consequences of microaggressions experienced in the day-to-day lives of transgender and gender diverse people

Abstract

Introduction Increasingly, it is apparent that in order to understand mental health and well-being, it is necessary to examine the ebb and flow of experiences and emotions across people’s day-to-day lives. For transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, daily life is sometimes punctured by experiences of minority stress (e.g. in the form of microaggressions). Method The current daily diary study investigated the frequency and types of microaggressions experienced by TGD people as well as their concurrent and prospective associations with mental health and well-being. Daily surveys measuring microaggressions, gender dysphoria, depressive and anxious symptoms, and self-esteem over the last 24 h were completed by TGD participants (N = 39) across 10 consecutive days (total of 351 diary entries). Results Seventy-four percent of participants experienced some form of microaggression within the 10-day study period, reporting an average of 1 microaggression approximately every other day. Microaggressions were associated with greater feelings of gender dysphoria, depressive and anxious symptoms, and lower self-esteem at the between-person level, while evidence for within-person effects was mixed (with some evidence for significant associations with gender dysphoria and self-esteem for specific microaggression domains). No evidence for prospective associations between microaggressions and mental health were found in the current study. Discussion Given the frequency of experiences of microaggressions in TGD people’s daily lives, particularly misuse of pronouns, it is critical that healthcare providers are aware of potential effects on mental health and well-being.