ATTITUDES TOWARD TRANS YOUTH SCALE: DEVELOPMENT AND INITIAL VALIDATION by JENNIFER M. BIRNKRANT, M.A. Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychological Sciences CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2018 2 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the dissertation of Jennifer M. Birnkrant candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy*. Committee Chair Amy Przeworski, Ph.D. Committee Member Julie Exline, Ph.D. Committee Member Arin Connell, Ph.D. Committee Member Matthew Garrett, Ph.D. Date of Defense March 28, 2018 *We also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein. 3 Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………… 6 Overview………………………………………………………………………. 7 Victimization Experiences of Trans Youth……………………………………. 7 Stigma Toward Sexual & Gender Minorities…………………………………. 10 Attitudes Toward Trans Individuals…………………………………………… 11 Previously Developed Measures of Attitudes Toward Trans Individuals…….. 13 Psychological Functioning in Gender Diverse Youth………………………… 16 Study Overview and Hypotheses……………………………………………… 18 Methods……………………………………………………………………….. 27 Participants & Procedure……………………………………………… 27 Measures……………………………………………………………… 28 Results………………………………………………………………………… 33 Parent Sample Findings………………………………………………. 33 Teacher Sample Findings…………………………………………….. 42 Discussion……………………………………………………………………. 45 Tables………………………………………………………………………… 57 Appendix…………………………………………………………………… .. 70 References……………………………………………………………………. 102 4 List of Tables Table 1. Parent Demographics……………………………………………………….. 57 Table 2. Continuous Variable Descriptive Statistics: Parent Sample………………... 59 Table 3. Exploratory Factor Analysis Factor Eigenvalues and Variance Explained… 60 Table 4. Exploratory Factor Analysis Final Items and Factor Loadings……………. 61 Table 5. Intercorrelations among ATTYS Full Scale and Subscales……………….. 63 Table 6. Convergent and Discriminant Validity of ATTYS and Subscales………... 64 Table 7. Predictive Validity of ATTYS and Subscales…………………………….. 65 Table 8. Teacher Demographics……………………………………………………. 66 Table 9. Continuous Variable Descriptive Statistics: Teacher Sample…………….. 68 Table 10. Correlational Results for Teacher Sample……………………………….. 69 5 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, mentor, and champion, Dr. Amy Przeworski, for the unwavering guidance, support, and cheerleading she has lent to me during this project and throughout the past six years of my graduate career. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Arin Connell, Dr. Julie Exline, and Dr. Matthew Garrett for their guidance and valuable insights throughout this process. I am also very grateful to all my friends and family, including my best friend Dr. Claire Wallace, for her constant guidance and support, and to my dear husband, Michael Silverstein, for his tireless support over the past six years, without which I would not have completed this dissertation or my doctoral degree. I am extremely grateful for financial support for this project provided by the Freedheim Award Fellowship awarded by The Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University. 6 Attitudes Toward Trans Youth Scale: Development and Initial Validation Abstract by JENNIFER M. BIRNKRANT, M.A. Trans youth experience high rates of victimization and discrimination at the hands of both parents and school staff. Two measures have been published which specifically focus on stigma toward gender nonconforming individuals and transgender adults (Hill & Willoughby, 2005; Walch, Ngamake, Francisco, Stitt, & Shingler, 2012). There is no published measure which assesses individuals’ attitudes toward trans youth. The current study aimed to develop a measure of adults’ attitudes toward trans youth, entitled the Attitudes Toward Trans Youth Scale (ATTYS). A five-factor structure was hypothesized for this novel measure including: Genderism (heteronormative attitudes), Entitlement (belief that trans youth should not have “special” privileges), Pathology (belief that trans identity is pathological), Danger to Others (belief that trans youth pose a risk to peers), and Fabricated Identity (belief that trans identity is not true or valid). This novel measure was administered online to parents of children ages 5-17 (n=195) as well as to teachers working with children in this age range (n=39). Exploratory factor analysis of the parent data revealed a stable four-factor solution. Genderism and Fabricated Identity factors were retained as predicted; two additional factors, Advocacy and School Accommodation, were revealed. Correlational analyses generally supported the discriminant, convergent, and predictive validity of the measure as hypothesized. The ATTYS has solid psychometric properties and utility in future research and clinical settings to assess adult attitudes toward trans youth. 7 Attitudes Toward Trans Youth Scale: Development and Initial Validation Transgender is a term used to describe individuals “whose gender identity, gender expression, or behavior does not conform to that typically associated with the sex to which they were assigned at birth” (APA, 2011). Although the term “transgender” is arguably the most commonly used word to describe these individuals, it is often used to mean only individuals whose gender identity or gender expression “fits” within a binary view of gender (i.e. transmen and transwomen who identify within the binary) and has negated those individuals who are non-binary and gender noncomforming. Therefore, the term “trans” will be used in this dissertation to refer to all non-cisgender identities and expressions within the gender identity spectrum, including but not limited to transgender, transsexual, genderqueer, genderfluid, gender creative, two-spirit, genderless, etc. Victimization Experiences of Trans Youth Data from the National School Climate Survey (Kosciw et al., 2016) indicated that 43.3% of LGBTQ-identified students ages 13-21 reported feeling unsafe at school due to their gender expression, and approximately 40% reported avoiding gender- segregated spaces (including bathrooms and locker rooms) in school due to feeling unsafe or uncomfortable. Fifty-four percent of participants reported experiencing verbal harassment at school based on their gender expression, and 20.3% reported being physically assaulted due to their gender expression. Over 57% of participants who reported being harassed or assaulted at school reported they did not disclose the incident(s) to school staff, most often because they doubted effective intervention would occur or worried the situation would become worse if they disclosed. 8 The vast majority of participants (85.7%) heard negative remarks specifically about transgender people at school (e.g. “tranny”, “he/she”); 40.5% of students reported hearing these derogatory comments frequently or often. Over half (50.9%) of transgender students in the sample reported being prevented from using their preferred name or pronoun at school, and 60% reported they had been required to use a bathroom or locker room inconsistent with their identified gender (Kosciw et al., 2016). In a qualitative study of 24 trans youth in Philadelphia, (Sausa, 2005) 96% of participants reported being verbally harassed at school, and 83% reported being physically harassed. Seventy-five percent of participants expressed that they did not feel safe at school, and 75% of participants dropped out of school, most because of “the constant acts of violence against them based on their gender identity and expression”. As current research indicates, a high percentage of LGBQ and trans youth experience high rates of discrimination and victimization in their schools. In addition to enduring abuse and discrimination at school, many trans youth also experience rejection and victimization at home. Many parents of trans youth initially attempt to persuade or force their children to exhibit more gender-congruent behaviors and preferences, which can be very confusing and distressing for the child. Grossman and colleagues asked 55 transgender youth to detail their gender development and their parents’ reactions to their gender nonconformity, both when they first disclosed their being transgender, and at the time of the study (Grossman, D’Augelli, Howell, & Hubbard, 2005). Fifty-four percent of mothers and 63% of fathers in the study were reported by their children to have reacted in a negative way to the initial revelation of their child’s gender variance. Additionally, 50% of mothers and 44% of fathers were reported to have a continued negative reaction to 9 their child’s identity at the time of the study (an average of three years after disclosure). The authors also noted that the more gender nonconforming the child, the more likely they were to report verbal and physical abuse at the hands of their parents. In a study of parents already connected with support services, Birnkrant and Przeworski (2017) found that a majority of parents indicated full acceptance of their trans child’s gender identity. This is in contrast to Grossman and colleagues’ (2005) results which indicated that 44-50% of parents reported a continued negative reaction to their child’s gender identity an average of three years after disclosure. These differences in results may be due to differences in the methodology between this study and Grossman and colleagues’ study. Grossman et al. recruited gender