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© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Objectives: Religiosity has generally been shown to be a protective factor against adverse mental health in the general population. Transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) individuals, however, may not experience the same protective effects, as many religions are unsupportive of diverse gender identities. This study examined whether increased religiosity and having been rejected by a religious community because of one’s gender identity were associated with mental health issues in TGNC individuals. Methods: A sample of TGNC adults (n = 154), predominantly from the United States, completed an online survey assessing these constructs. Results: These constructs were highly represented in the sample, with 46.1% of participants having experienced religious rejection at some point throughout their lifetime because of their gender identity, 40.3% currently experiencing symptoms of elevated depression and 34.4% of elevated anxiety, and 48.7% with suicidal ideation over the past 2 weeks. Religious rejection was associated with increased depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Neither interpersonal nor intrapersonal religiosity was associated in a bivariate way with any of the three mental health outcomes. However, among participants who experienced rejection by one’s religious community, interpersonal religiosity was strongly associated with increased depression symptoms and suicidal ideation, whereas conversely among TGNC individuals who had not experienced rejection by their religious community, interpersonal religiosity was weakly associated with depression and suicidal ideation. Conclusion: The results underscore the extremely harmful effects of religious rejection due to one’s gender identity on religious TGNC individuals, pointing to the active contributions of the behaviors of traditional religious groups towards TGNC mental health problems and suicide.

Details

Title
Associations Among Religiosity, Religious Rejection, Mental Health, and Suicidal Ideation in Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Adults
Author
Cull, Steph L 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Perrin, Paul B 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Henry, Richard S 3 

 Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23284, USA; [email protected] 
 School of Data Science, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA 
 Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, QC H3T 1E1, Canada; [email protected]; Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 1A1, Canada 
First page
270
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
2076328X
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
3181373136
Copyright
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.