A study of body image among the transgender in relation to perceived stigma stress anxiety depression and empathy

Abstract

The present research is carried out to study the relationship between body image, stress, anxiety depression, empathy and perceived stigma among transgender. A comparative study is carried on transgender and cisgender individuals. The transgender community is highly marginalised community of our society. Our society is mainly divided among gender binary that is male and female only. Anyone who does not recognise with this gender binary is treated with high levels of discrimination in our society. The transgender community faces stigma on daily basis in every sphere of their life. Due to this stigma and discrimination, their mental health remains in dilapidated condition which further affects their physical health. Body image is a very important factor for the transgender community as they identify with other sex rather than their assigned sex, so, transgender individuals constantly make efforts for improving their body image satisfaction by using hormone therapy, cross-dressing and even sex reassignment surgery. The present study is aimed to study the effect of body image on different variables among transgender. The total 150 participants comprising of 50 males and 50 females were randomly selected from the cisgender population and 50 transgender were taken through snowball sampling technique. The complete sample will be selected from different parts of Ambala, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and Patiala. For testing the following scales were used: 1. The Multidimensional Body Self Relations QuestionnaireAppearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) (Cash, et al., 2004) 2.The Stigma Scale (Martin and Dean, 1987) 3. Depression anxiety stress scale (DASS-21) (Lovibond and Lovibond,1995) 4. The Basic Empathy Scale (BES) (Jolliffe and Farrington,2006) An interview schedule was also used to analyse the views of different individuals for the upliftment of the transgender community. newline