From left to right: Dr. Paz Galupo, Dr. Jae Puckett, and Dr. Em Matsuno
The Trans-ilience Research Lab, Dr. Jae Puckett (they/them), and collaborators recently received a major grant for research on resilience in transgender communities, called Modeling Resilience as a Multidimensional Protective Factor for Transgender Health Disparities: Measure Development and Longitudinal Evaluation of Resilience. This 2.2 million dollar grant has been awarded by the National Institute for Minority Health and Health Disparities to the Trans-ilience Lab and two collaborators: the EMpowerment lab at Arizona State University, run by Dr. Em Matsuno (they/them), and the Queer/Trans Collective for Research on Equity and Wellness at Towson University, run by Dr. Paz Galupo (she/they).
This grant will fund a project designed to address a current research gap in the field of resilience studies - the scientific measurement of resilience in trans communities. This study will take place from Fall 2022 to Summer 2026. There is currently a distinct lack of literature on how to measure unique factors of resilience among transgender and gender-diverse people, as found by Dr. Puckett and collaborators in their recent review of the literature.
To carry out these aims of creating a measure that better attends to the experiences of trans and gender diverse people, the team of collaborators will use participatory research methods to create the scale then will be conducting a longitudinal study where they will validate the measure and track participants’ experiences across a span of two years to see how resilience influence mental health and wellbeing over time. The research methodology has also intentionally been developed to reflect the experiences of transgender and gender diverse people of color, in order to create a model that will accurately measure resilience for all transgender people.
More information on this grant and comments from the project leaders can be found in the full article from the MSU Psychology Department here.