Measure Development to Advance Research on Trans and Nonbinary People's Lives

We recently published a new article in which we provide 8 new scales that measure unique stressors that trans and nonbinary people experience. This is an important advancement in research on minority stress as there’s been limited scale development and the scales that have been developed in the past primarily drew from models that were made for cisgender people. 

Why do we need new measures? 

Research about the drivers of health disparities has grown substantially over recent years. However, most of that research starts from a place of generalizing from cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other queer people. The minority stress model has been the predominant guiding framework in this area of research and most scales were developed in ways that center that model. Although there is overlap in the types of stressors trans and nonbinary people and cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer people experience, there are unique lived experiences for trans and nonbinary people that get overlooked when starting from a cisgender lens. Our hope is that these new measures provide opportunities to more accurately reflect some of the challenges that trans and nonbinary people go through. 

What stressors do these new scales measure? 

Type of Stressor	Description	Example from Prior Research
Trans and Nonbinary Vigilance	Trans and nonbinary people’s experiences of feeling on alert or on edge due to their body and gender being monitored by others.	“I couldn't stop thinking that everyone knows I'm wearing a binder.”
Gender Strain	Stress experienced due to binary expectations of gender or feeling limited in gender expression due to gender norms.	"I feel limited by society's binary gender norms."
Misgendering	Being referred to in ways that differ from or negate a trans or nonbinary person’s gender (e.g., using the wrong pronouns, name, gendered terms, etc.).	“My coworkers regularly slip between he/him and she/her, it's a little strange because the only reason they do is because they knew me before.”
Foreshortened Trans and Nonbinary Futures	A sense that a trans or nonbinary person’s future is limited either in quality or time due to the oppression trans and nonbinary people experience and the social narratives about trans and nonbinary people's lives.	“Yesterday I started to think about what it would be like to live my life and be allowed to work as my true self, and I got very depressed, because I know it will never happen.”
Vicarious Gender Minority Stress	Exposure to stressful narratives from other trans or nonbinary people or social representation of trans or nonbinary people.	“So much Caitlyn Jenner drama.  Also, discussed experiences being physically attacked/threatened with some trans friends.”
Transitioning Identity Stress	Tensions arising while navigating current identity in relation to past (often assumed) gender, which may manifest via internal processes and in social interactions and situations.	“Had a college reception dinner, but one of my high school classmates was coming, tried to plan what name to go by as to create least problems both now & in the future.”
Body/Gender Policing	Attempts to enforce a gender identity, gender expression, or physical appearance related to gendered expectations.	“I was dressed especially effeminately and people accused me of lying about being trans because of it.”

How were these scales developed? 

These scales draw on many years of research with trans and nonbinary communities done by Dr. Jae Puckett and Dr. Zachary DuBois. Drawing from that rich qualitative data, we developed items for these scales. We then gathered community input and feedback from other experts in the field to improve those measures. 

This all led to the current study and paper, where we tested out the scales and found the best items for each one. These scales come with a lot of community input and are deeply grounded in the lived experiences of trans and nonbinary people. 

Why is this so important? 

Our hope is that these scales will provide better ways to measure some of the unique forms of stressors that trans and nonbinary people experience. These are not meant to be exhaustive - other measures, like the Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Scale and others, are still very useful. We are expanding the possibilities and hope that others will continue to do so as well! 

How to access the scales: 

The article about the scales is available here

This includes an appendix with the scales as well. 

You can also access them directly here.