Development of the Trans and Gender Diverse Social Anxiety Scale

Objectives: We develop and evaluate a Trans and Gender Diverse Social Anxiety Scale (TSAS) suitable for use with trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. Methods: We evaluate the TSAS on a sample of 171 TGD adults (40 transmen, 80 transwomen, and 51 gender nonbinary). We test the TSAS's construct validity against measures of perceived and enacted anti-trans stigma, and in comparison to a generic (i.e., non-TGD-specific) measure of social anxiety, the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Results: Factor analyses reveal a four-factor structure consisting of fear and avoidance of (i) social interactions with familiar people, (ii) public scrutiny, (iii) interactions with organizations, and (iv) interactions with religious people or religious authority. Hierarchical regressions confirm that although symptoms of social anxiety assessed by the TSAS overlap with symptoms of generic social anxiety, responses to the TSAS target social situations specifically related to anti-trans stigma. MANOVAs of TSAS score by TGD gender subgroups also reveal that transmen report more social anxiety than either gender nonbinary TGD people or transwomen. Conclusions: The TSAS is a brief instrument that can be used to measure social anxiety in TGD people in social situations in which anti-trans stigma is commonly encountered.