Assessing Differences in Adverse Childhood Event Scores Between Transgender/Nonbinary Individuals and Cisgender Sexual Minorities From the San Antonio Strengthening Colors of Pride Project

Amy Stone
Phillip Schnarrs, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
Robert Salcido, Jr., Pride Center

Sexual minorities report higher scores of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on average, compared to their heterosexual counterparts. As part of a larger study, n = 809 sexual and gender minorities (SGM) responded to a short-survey and 637 SGMs completed the survey with an average ACE score of 3.67. However, transgender and non-binary (TNB) respondents reported having statistically significantly higher ACEs scores (x = 4.09) than their cisgender peers (x = 3.57, p<.01), with non-white TNB respondents reporting the highest average ACEs score (x = 4.65). We account for the disparity in ACEs scores between TNB and cisgender respondents by the type of adverse childhood experiences TNB encounter. Specifically, TNB were more likely to report adverse experiences in their interactions with adults as children, suggesting childhood trauma experienced by TNB is linked to a more interpersonally mediated mechanism and opposed to a structural issue like parental incarceration.

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 Presented in Session 97. Research on Transgender and Gender Nonbinary/Nonconforming Populations