Abstract
Trans* people frequently report attitudes of prejudice/transphobia in health professionals. Conversely, health professionals indicate the lack of adequate training to care for these people and its impact on the quality of care provided. Objective: Our objective was to evaluate the explicit prejudices/transphobia of health students and professionals and compare them with the general population in Tenerife. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out with the Genderism and Transphobia Scale (GTS) and the Negative Attitude towards Trans* people Scale (EANT) with a total of 602 participants. Results: We found a low mean level of explicit prejudice/transphobia, with little/no differences between occupation groups. Explicit transphobia was correlated with being a man, less educated, and heterosexual, and not personally knowing a trans* person. Men and women were less transphobic about trans* people whose identities coincided with their own. Conclusion: All participants showed a low mean level of explicit transphobia. This result is not incompatible with unconscious prejudice, which may translate to discriminatory behaviors. Interventions to change negative attitudes are still needed, since even a small percentage of transphobic health professionals could exert a considerable negative impact on health care. In professionals without transphobic attitudes, the barriers identified by trans* people might be a problem due to the lack of specific training.
Highlights
In the literature, the term trans* is accepted as a broad concept that encompasses many gender identities, especially those that do not coincide with the sex assigned at birth [1]
We only found a significant difference among occupations, with health students showing a lower value of explicit transphobia than people in other occupations for the TG factor
We found low mean values of explicit transphobia and negative attitudes, with little or no difference between health care workers or students and those in other occupations
Summary
The term trans* is accepted as a broad concept that encompasses many gender identities, especially those that do not coincide with the sex assigned at birth [1]. The social construction of personal relationships has been determined by the principle of heteronormativity; that is, the concept of cisgender (concordance between the sex assigned at birth and gender identity), heterosexuality, and family traditionalism (i.e., other-sex marriage) as the “correct” way of living [2]. Heteronormativity refers to heterosexuality being the perceived normative form for relationships and coupling. This has led to prejudice and discrimination against gender and sexual minorities, which, in the case of trans* people, has been labelled transphobia [3,4]
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