Gender Identity Conflict/Affirmation and Major Depression Across the Life Course of Transgender Women

ABSTRACT

Using the Life Chart Interview, a validated instrument for the collection of biographical data, lifetime information about transgender experiences was collected in a community-based sample of 571 transgender women from the New York metropolitan area. Disclosures of transgender identity in different types of relationships, responses of relationship partners indicative of gender identity conflict or affirmation, and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, major depression were assessed within and across five stages of the life course. Gender identity conflict/affirmation was associated with major depression within stages of the life course (contemporaneous analysis) and predictive of changes in major depression across stages of the life course (lagged analysis).

KEYWORDS:

• Transgender women
• gender identity conflict/affirmation