Understanding Intersectionality and Resiliency among Transgender Adolescents: Exploring Pathways among Peer Victimization, School Belonging, and Drug Use.

Tyler Hatchel,Robert Marx

doi:10.3390/ijerph15061289

Abstract

Transgender youth experience elevated levels of victimization and may therefore report greater drug use than their cisgender peers, yet little is known about protective factors like school belonging that may mediate this relationship. Further, scant research has explored the experiences of youth at the intersection of transgender identity and youth of color status or low socioeconomic status, especially with respect to these multiple minority statuses’ associations with peer victimization, drug use, and school belonging. Using data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, the current study employs structural equation modeling to explore the relationships among school belonging, peer victimization, and drug use for transgender youth. Findings indicate that school belonging does mediate the pathway between peer victimization and drug use for transgender youth and that although youth of color experience greater victimization, they do not engage in greater drug use than their white transgender peers. Based on these results, those concerned with the healthy futures of transgender youth should advocate for more open and affirming school climates that engender a sense of belonging and treat transgender youth with dignity and fairness.

Highlights

Gavin Grimm and Max Brennan, two Mid-Atlantic transgender high school students whose names have been in the news in the last three years, might seem to have much in common as they navigate adolescence, apply for college, and think about the future
In line with previous scholarship that aimed to understand the relationships between victimization, negative behavioral outcomes, and the potential buffering effects of resilience, the current study investigates the role school belonging may play in mediating the relationship between peer victimization and drug use for transgender students
Research that employs a nationally representative sample and that could offer a broader understanding of the relationships among peer victimization, school belonging, and drug use will extend these findings considerably

Summary

Introduction

Gavin Grimm and Max Brennan, two Mid-Atlantic transgender high school students whose names have been in the news in the last three years, might seem to have much in common as they navigate adolescence, apply for college, and think about the future. Policies protecting transgender students in schools vary widely across the nation, either on a state-by-state or district-by-district basis, meaning that some students attend schools with policies that mandate administrators’ use of students’ correct names and pronouns, while others’ schools forbid it. This difference in policy may explain why in a recent national survey, 60% of transgender students reported being forced to use the restroom that corresponded to the sex on their birth certificate [3]. Public Health 2018, 15, 1289; doi:10.3390/ijerph15061289 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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