Minority Stress in Digital Contexts: Emotional and Cognitive Patterns in Transgender Health Discourse on Reddit

Transgender populations face disproportionate health challenges, including elevated mental health risks and limited access to gender-affirming care, compounded by systemic discrimination and stigma. In response, online forums have become critical spaces for health information exchange, peer support, and resilience-building among this population. Within these spaces, individuals negotiate stigma, identity, and care-seeking through shared language and narratives. To understand these dynamics, the present study examines discourse in two Reddit communities, r/transgender and r/transhealth, using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to analyze emotional tone, analytical thinking, authenticity, clout, and thematic content. Results show that r/transgender discourse often reflects the emotional toll of distal stressors, emphasizing identity negotiation and emotional processing, while r/transhealth features solution-oriented dialogs focused on navigating healthcare systems and sharing affirming care experiences. These findings extend Minority Stress Theory into digital contexts, illustrating how community norms shape coping strategies ranging from emotional validation to practical problem-solving. Insights from this study can inform more empathetic, culturally competent communication between healthcare providers, institutions, and transgender patients to improve trust, engagement, and health outcomes.