Transgender women often suffer from transition-related
discrimination and loss of social support due to their gender transition, which
may pose considerable psychological challenges and may lead to a high
prevalence of depression in this population. Increased self-efficacy may combat
the adverse effects of gender transition on depression. However, few available
studies have investigated the protective effect of self-efficacy on depression
among transgender women, and there is a scarcity of research describing the
mental health of Chinese transgender women. This study aims to describe the
prevalence of depression among Chinese transgender women and to explore the
associated factors.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Shenyang, Liaoning
Province of China by convenience sampling from January 2014 to July 2014. Two
hundred and nine Chinese transgender women were interviewed face-to-face with
questionnaires that covered topics including the Zung Self-Rating Depression
Scale (SDS), demographic characteristics, transition status, sex partnership,
perceived transgender-related discrimination, the Multidimensional Scale of
Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) and the adapted General Self-efficacy Scale
(GSES). A hierarchical multiple regression analysis was performed to explore
the factors associated with SDS scores.
- The prevalence of depression among transgender women was 45.35%.
- Transgender women with regular partners or casual partners exhibited higher SDS scores than those without regular partners or casual partners.
- Regression analyses showed that sex partnership explained most (16.6%) of the total variance in depression scores.
- Self-efficacy was negatively associated with depression.
Chinese transgender women experienced high levels of
depression. Depression was best predicted by whether transgender women had a
regular partner or a casual partner rather than transgender-related
discrimination and transition status. Moreover, self-efficacy had positive
effects on attenuating depression due to gender transition. Therefore,
interventions should focus on improving the sense of self-efficacy among these
women to enable them to cope with depression and to determine risky sex
partnership characteristics, especially for regular and casual partners.
1Department of Social Medicine, School of Public Health, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
2Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
3Department of AIDS and STD Control, Shenyang Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
4Department of Clinical Laboratory, Liaoning Province Hospital of Chinese Armed Police Force, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
5Department of Clinical Medicine, China Medical University, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
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