Year of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Clinical Psychology

Department or School/College

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Bryan Cochran

Commitee Members

Greg Machek, Anya Jabour

Keywords

gender nonconformity, mental health, stigma

Subject Categories

Clinical Psychology | Multicultural Psychology

Abstract

LGBT individuals experience disproportionately more victimization than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Within these populations, perceived gender nonconformity predicts even higher rates of victimization. The current investigation examined relationships between gender nonconformity, experiences with victimization, and psychopathology among 671 students from the University of Montana, including 64 LGBT-identified individuals, who took part in an online study as part of course requirements. Hierarchical regressions were calculated to examine the relationships between gender expression, victimization, and psychopathology while controlling for sexual orientation, gender identity, and ethnicity. Gender nonconformity was a significant predictor of reported victimization, beyond sexual orientation and ethnicity (ΔR2 = .018, p= .009), contributing to an overall model that predicted 15.0% of the variance in victimization scores. Additionally, gender nonconformity and victimization significantly predicted psychopathology scores (ΔR2 = .061, p < .001) above and beyond sexual orientation and ethnicity, contributing to a model that explained 14.7% of the variance in psychopathology scores. Gender also appeared to moderate the relationship between gender nonconformity and experiences of victimization, [DR2= .007, DF (1, 559) = 3.913, p = .048], suggesting that gender nonconforming women in this sample experienced a significantly greater degree of childhood trauma than did gender nonconforming men. These results have several implications for treatment involving gender nonconforming clients, as well as for non-discrimination ordinances that often exclude gender identity and expression from protected categories. These implications, as well as ideas for future research, are addressed in the manuscript.

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© Copyright 2016 Kathryn M. Oost