The Relationship Between Anti-Transgender Experiences (A Proxy for Minority Stress) and Heavy Alcohol Use Among...

Although several studies have shown a relationship between anti-transgender experiences and binge drinking and/or hazardous drinking, very little research has examined how these experiences relate to heavy drinking. That is the focus of this study.

This paper uses data from the 2015 National Transgender Survey, and is based on a sample of 17,367 transgender adults residing in the United States. Analyses compare three groups: current "regular" drinkers (drank at least some alcohol during the previous month but no days consuming five or more drinks) (n = 10,496), binge drinkers (consumption of five or more drinks on at least one occasion during the previous month) (n = 4977), and heavy drinkers (five or more drinks per day on five or more days during the previous month) (n = 1894). The paper focuses on how anti-transgender experiences with harassment, discrimination, and/or violence (a 20-item scale measure, Cronbach's alpha = 0.76) are related to people's classification as current drinkers versus binge drinkers versus heavy drinkers.

13.8% of the participants met the criteria for heavy drinking; 26.4% more were classified as binge drinkers. The more anti-transgender experiences people had, the more likely they were to engage in heavy drinking. Multivariate analyses revealed that this relationship was a robust one, holding up even when numerous other potentially confounding control measures were included in the analyses.

Anti-transgender experiences are a strong predictor of heavy drinking. This type of minority stressor is an important consideration when understanding what leads many transgender individuals to become heavy drinkers.