3 - (SYM 50) Leveraging Latent Profiles of Gender Diversity to Reveal Disparities in Psychological Distress Across Gender Sub-groups

BACKGROUND: Gender minority individuals face vast mental health disparities. Importantly, gender is a heterogeneous construct, and simplified conceptualizations of gender may obfuscate subgroup differences. Frameworks offering a holistic measurement of gender are critical. Using multiple indices, the current study deployed latent profile analysis (LPA) to identify gender groups, revealing nuanced gender-based disparities in psychological distress.

METHOD: A sample of 2404 respondents (79% white, 20% gender minority) completed online surveys. LPA indices included sex assigned at birth, continuous identification, gender expression/engagement in gender roles, and gender fluidity. Measures of distress included depression (PHQ-9), internalized shame (Transgender Identity Scale), microaggression exposure (Gender Identity Microaggressions Scale), frequency of past suicide attempts, and frequency of seeking counseling.

ANOVA and c2 analyses were utilized to explore differences across distress outcomes, with age, years of education, gender minority status, and sexual minority status added as covariates. Hierarchical regressions were used to assess the incremental predictive validity of the LPA groups over and above a single item (i.e., identifying a single gender label).

RESULTS: Latent profile analysis yielded a 7-group solution: (1) strongly aligned masculine, (2) strongly aligned feminine, (3) moderately aligned masculine, (4) moderately aligned feminine, (5) aligned non-binary woman, (6) aligned non-binary/agender, and (7) aligned fluid. These LPA groups exhibited distinct patterns of distress. Aligned non-binary/agender, fluid, and non-binary woman respondents reported the highest levels of moderately severe depression symptoms, previous suicide attempts, and counseling seeking. Aligned agender/non-binary and fluid participants further reported the greatest levels of exposure to microaggressions. Align non-binary/agender, fluid, and moderately aligned masculine participants reported the highest levels of internalized shame. Excitingly, these LPA-derived groups accounted for significant amounts of additional variance for these variables over and above the prediction achieved from a single gender item.

CONCLUSIONS: This study reveals the unique needs of populations with gender experiences outside the gender binary. The development of more nuanced categorical conceptualizations of gender could be a critical step for improving the sensitivity of public health identification.