Polish adaptation of the Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults (GIDYQ-AA-PL)

Abstract

Introduction and objective: The aim of the study was to develop a tool to measure the level of gender dysphoria in adolescents and adults, as well as to assess its psychometric properties. Materials and methods: The study attempted a Polish adaptation of the questionnaire to assess dysphoria and gender identification in adolescents and adults (Gender Identity/Gender Dysphoria Questionnaire for Adolescents and Adults, GIDYQ-AA). It involved 1,780 respondents aged 11 to 73 years, diverse in terms of sex assigned at birth and gender identity. The questionnaire used in the adaptation study consisted of three parts: statistical data, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the GIDYQ-AA questionnaire translated into Polish. Results: The analysis showed that the structure of the tool is single-factor. Items 4 and 13 of the original tool were removed from the Polish version due to poor correlation with the scale and low factor loadings of these items. The structure equivalence analysis showed that developing general standards could lead to flattening of conclusions from individual measurements. It was decided to create norms taking into account sex and age. The obtained tool has a reliability of 0.97 CR and good validity measured as the correlation coefficient between the level of dysphoria and the level of anxiety, depression and irritability. Conclusions: The adaptation and analysis gave rise to a 25-item tool with high reliability and validity. Unlike the original tool, in-depth statistical analyses allowed for the creation of detailed dysphoria norms for age and sex assigned at birth. The presented questionnaire is a valuable contribution to the system of Polish standards for diagnosing people struggling with gender nonconformity.