Counseling Professionals' Attitudes Toward Transgender People and Responses to Transgender Clients

Nisley, Emily A.; McDonnell, Kelly A.

doi:10.1037/e715652011-001

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The three studies reported here mirror previous research (e.g., Ali et al, 2016;Bowers et al, 2015;Nisley 2010) in finding more negative (on the GTS-RA) or less positive (on the CATTS) attitudes towards transgender people amongst cisgender men as compared to cisgender women within three Australian samples of cisgender psychologists and trainees.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Gender differences in cisgender psychologists’ and trainees’ attitudes toward transgender people.

Riggs¹,

Sion²

2017

Psychology of Men & Masculinity

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Research that has explored the attitudes of cisgender people toward transgender people has identified gender differences, with cisgender men commonly reporting more negative attitudes than cisgender women. However, little research has explored whether such differences exist among mental health professionals. This brief report outlines findings from 3 studies focusing on attitudes toward transgender people among 3 samples of Australian cisgender psychologists or psychology trainees. The first explored attitudes toward transgender people among psychology undergraduates in an Australian university. The second 2 explored attitudes toward transgender people among Australian mental health-care profession-als (with the specific focus of this brief report being upon participants in each study who were psychologists). The findings from each study suggest that cisgender men reported more negative attitudes than did cisgender women. This brief report concludes by considering the broader context that potentially shapes cisgender men's attitudes and advocates for further research that examines the impact of gender ideology upon attitudes and awareness raising so as to improve service outcomes for transgender people. This is an Author Accepted version of a manuscript published in Psychology of Men andMasculinities.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 73%

Gender differences in cisgender psychologists’ and trainees’ attitudes toward transgender people.

Riggs¹,

Sion²

2017

Psychology of Men & Masculinity

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“…nonreligious group (38.3%) reported having contact with those who identify as transgender, compared to the evangelical Christian group (31.7%), which fits with prior studies reporting that less familiarity with transgender persons corresponds to higher levels of antitransgender attitudes (Hill & Willoughby, 2005;Nisley, 2010;Tee & Hegarty, 2006). Although the difference in contact is not dramatic, encouraging personal and professional contact between evangelicals and transgender people within and outside the church may improve evangelical Christians' comfort level in interacting with the transgender population.…”

Section: Group Differences In Tabs Factorssupporting

confidence: 79%

A comparison between self-identified evangelical Christians’ and nonreligious persons’ attitudes toward transgender persons.

Kanamori¹,

Pegors²,

Hulgus³

et al. 2017

Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity

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The present study provides the 1st descriptive survey study to date that reports attitudes and beliefs toward transgender persons with a sample of the U.S. evangelical Christian population. Data were collected from 483 participants (nonreligious n ϭ 253, evangelical Christian n ϭ 230) recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The study employed the Transgender Attitudes and Beliefs Scale-a psychometrically sound and culturally sensitive, 3-factor (interpersonal comfort, sex/gender beliefs, and human value) 29-item scale-to assess attitudes and beliefs toward transgender. Data were analyzed using two-way analyses of variance, item analyses, independent samples t tests, and Pearson's correlations. Findings indicated that evangelical Christians showed significantly lower attitude scores and a more dichotomous or fixed view of gender compared to their nonreligious counterparts. At the same time, evangelical Christians displayed greater variability in their attitudes toward transgender persons and had high ratings on the human value factor overall (measuring the extent to which a person affirms transgender persons' intrinsic value as a person), which was, in turn, less correlated with the other factors-interpersonal comfort and sex/gender beliefs-than for their secular reference group. On questions pertaining to civil rights, evangelical Christians, on average, gave significantly lower ratings than did nonreligious persons, though the effect size was small on the issue of access to housing.

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“…Similarly, a study of psychiatrists conducted by Ali, Fleisher and Erickson (2016) and a study of counselling professionals conducted by Claman (2005) found that having previously worked with trans clients predicted more positive attitudes. Conversely, a study of masters and doctoral student counsellors and counselling psychologists found greater expression of anti-trans attitudes amongst those who had less training and experience with trans clients (Nisley, 2010). However, Rehbein's (2012) study of 66 mental health counsellors found that exposure to trans people such as meeting a trans person, having trans clients, or participating in training about trans issues were not significantly associated with attitudes.…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Trans Peoplementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Another survey found that a sample of 88 mental health professional and trainee respondents reported low levels of transphobia and genderism (Willoughby et al, 2011), as did a study of 64 mental health professionals (Cochran, 2013). Similarly, a survey of 138 masters and doctoral student counsellors and counselling psychologists found very low levels of anti-trans attitudes (Nisley, 2010). However, another survey of 66 mental health counsellors found that overall only 26% had positive attitudes towards trans people (Rehbein, 2012).…”

Section: Attitudes Towards Trans Peoplementioning

confidence: 99%

Australian mental health professionals’ competencies for working with trans clients: a comparative study

Riggs

Bartholomaeus

2016

Psychology & Sexuality

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Growing numbers of trans people require access to mental health services, however previous research suggests that many trans clients have negative experiences with mental health professionals. This paper reports on an Australian survey of 304 counsellors, mental health nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers with regard to their clinical knowledge, comfort, and confidence in working with trans clients. The findings suggest that training and previous experience in working with trans clients are related to increased levels of accurate clinical knowledge and confidence; that psychiatrists had the lowest levels of accurate knowledge; that female participants had higher levels of accurate knowledge than did male participants; that counsellors had the highest levels of confidence, and that there was a negative relationship between religiosity and comfort in working with trans clients. The paper concludes by advocating for the development of more nuanced measures to assess the attitudes and skillsets of mental health professionals in regards to working with trans clients, and the need for further upskilling of the Australian mental health workforce.

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Counseling Professionals' Attitudes Toward Transgender People and Responses to Transgender Clients

Cited by 12 publications

References 54 publications

Gender differences in cisgender psychologists’ and trainees’ attitudes toward transgender people.

Gender differences in cisgender psychologists’ and trainees’ attitudes toward transgender people.

A comparison between self-identified evangelical Christians’ and nonreligious persons’ attitudes toward transgender persons.

Australian mental health professionals’ competencies for working with trans clients: a comparative study

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