Crosby, C., Paredes Cienega, P., Bieniak, K., McCracken, K., Fenelon, E., & Tran, S.T. (2024, April 27) Mental health, coping, and discrimination among college students with marginalized gender identities [Poster Presentation]. Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium 2024, Chicago, IL, United States.

Abstract 

Depression and anxiety are more prevalent among gender-diverse folks and women than men. Past research shows that unhealthy coping mechanisms are common and healthy coping mechanisms are infrequent among gender-minoritized individuals, and coping strategies are related to discrimination. There have been little to no studies on coping and discrimination that include gender-diverse folks at the college level. Our main goal is to examine mental health and the relationship between coping and discrimination across genders. We hypothesized that students with marginalized gender identities would have higher rates of mental health conditions, and discrimination would be linked to coping. Students at a midwestern university completed an online survey regarding their identity, coping, discrimination, anxiety, and depression. Women and gender-diverse participants had higher anxiety and depression than men (F(2) = 15.70, and F(2) = 11.07, respectively, both p<.001). Gender groups didn’t differ in substance use or emotional support, but they did in self-blame (F(2) = 5.64, p=.004). Gender-diverse folks had higher self-blame than men. For men, discrimination was related to self-blame (r = .25, p = .03). For women, discrimination was related to substance use and self-blame (r = .18, p < .001, and r = .25, p < .001). For gender-diverse folks, discrimination wasn’t associated with any coping strategy. Results reveal that mental health among women and gender-diverse folks is worse than in men. Gender-diverse folks have higher experiences of self-blame, but it wasn’t shown that discrimination correlated to coping. In men and women, discrimination and self-blame were linked; and discrimination and substance use are related in women. Findings provide greater insight into the mental health of college-age minoritized genders as well as the link between coping and discrimination in this population. Further research should widen their scope of mental health in terms of assessing anxiety and depression in addition to other conditions.

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