When Resilience Is Not Enough: Enacted Stigma and Mental Health of Trans and Nonbinary People

Trans and nonbinary (TNB) people are subject to social and institutional marginalization, and simultaneously report varied experiences of resilience. We developed and validated a novel measure of TNB-specific resilience and were following our participants longitudinally when our NIH grant was unjustly terminated. Resisting the government's efforts to derail science, the current study uses our baseline data to understand whether the positive effects of resilience on mental health hold across various levels of enacted stigma. Our sample included 608 participants between the ages of 18 and 77 years old with a mean age of 41.06; 50% were white and 50% endorsed at least one racial/ethnic minority identity. After controlling for age and general resilience, enacted stigma was positively associated with depression and suicidality (both over the past year and in one's lifetime). Enacted stigma moderated the association between resilience and depression, but not resilience and suicidality. At low to moderate levels of lifetime reports of enacted stigma, those with higher levels of resilience experienced less depression compared to those with lower levels of resilience. These effects were not sustained at high levels of enacted stigma. These findings emphasize the importance of not only bolstering resilience but supporting advocacy efforts to decrease the amount of stigma that TNB people face. We discuss advocacy implications and the negative impacts of stifling this area of research on science and TNB communities.