Internet Research Methods: A Practical Guide for the Social and Behavioural Sciences

Social work as a profession

With a national sample of 552 transgender adults, the present study tested hypotheses drawn from minority stress theory and positive psychology research on stress-ameliorating processes. Specifically, the present study examined the relations of minority stressors (i.e., antitransgender discrimination, stigma awareness, and internalized transphobia) and individualand group-level buffers (i.e., resilience and collective action) of minority stress. As expected, each minority stressor was positively correlated with psychological distress. In terms of buffers, resilience—though not collective action—was negatively correlated with psychological distress. Additionally, stigma awareness—but not internalized transphobia—mediated the relation of antitransgender discrimination with higher psychological distress. Moderation analyses indicated that resilience did not moderate any of the relations of the minority stressors with psychological distress. However, contrary to prediction, collective action strengthened the positive relation of internalized transphobia with psychological distress. Furthermore, at high levels of collective action, internalized transphobia became a significant mediator of the discrimination-distress relation. Strategies for developing individual (e.g., resilience building strategies) and group-level (e.g., engagement in collective action) interventions targeted toward transgender individuals who experience discrimination are discussed.

Resilience and collective action: Exploring buffers against minority stress for transgender individuals.

A growing body of literature has described the barriers trans youth experience related to gender identity and expression (Gonzalez & McNulty, 2010; Grossman & D'Augelli, 2007), yet less information is known about trans youth's resilience in terms of their ability to manage societal discrimination in their lives. The words trans or transgender have been used to describe individuals whose sex assigned at birth (i.e., male or female) is not in alignment with their gender identity (e.g., woman or man) and expression (American Counseling Association [ACA], 2010). The prevalence rates of trans youth are difficult to specify, especially because there has been little research with this group and the few youth surveys (e.g., Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System) that typically assess attitudes and behaviors of young people have not included a place for trans youth to self-identify (Winter & Conway, 2011). In addition, knowledge about gender identity and trans health is very low among health providers (counselors, medical doctors, etc.), translating to inadequate or nonexistent health care access (Bockting, Robinson, Benner, & Scheltema, 2004). These deficits in trans competency became more relevant for the counseling profession, because for the first time the most recent Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People (World Professional Association of Transgender Health, 2011) has included master's-level counselors as potential providers for writing letters for hormone replacement therapy and other trans-related surgeries. Recently, ACA endorsed the Competencies for Counseling with Transgender Clients (2010), which grounded counselor training competencies in strength-based, feminist, multicultural, and social justice theories. However, the focus of this document was primarily on trans adults, so there continues to be very little information about the resilience trans youth have developed to resist trans prejudice (i.e., discrimination against trans people) and adultism (the system of oppression where adults hold greater power regarding decision making in their lives than do young people; Bell, 2003). The purpose of this study was to explore the supports of and challenges to resilience that trans youth experience in their everyday lived experiences. We defined resilience as the strategies and contexts that assist trans youth to navigate life stressors related to their gender identity and/ or gender expression with success (Hartling, 2004; Mizcock & Lewis, 2008; Werner, 1995). * Challenges to Trans Youth Resilience To understand what helps trans youth develop resilience--what helps them "bounce back" from adversity (Reivich & Shatte, 2002)--to societal discrimination, it is important to understand the many challenges that trans youth currently face. Despite the efforts of national advocacy groups (e.g., National Center for Transgender Equality [NCTE]) that have helped to develop positive portrayals of and education about trans people in media and other contexts, many societal barriers still exist in a variety of areas that directly affect a trans person's quality of life. These barriers may reside in social and family structures, employment discrimination, health care access, or schools. The detrimental effects of these societal barriers can often put trans youth at risk for dropping out of school, running away from home, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and becoming homeless (Grossman & D'Augelli, 2006; Singh, Hays, & Watson, 2011). Furthermore, the National Transgender Discrimination Survey (Grant et al., 2011) reported that 78% of trans children in grades K-12 reported some form of harassment related to their gender identity and expression, 35% of the children reported incidences of physical violence, and 12% of the children reported sexual violence. Other challenges trans youth face include obtaining satisfactory medical care, instead encountering physicians' negative beliefs (Kitts, 2010), refusal of care, and a general lack of knowledge (Grant et al. …

“I Am My Own Gender”: Resilience Strategies of Trans Youth

Content Analysis for Communications

Even with society's increasing acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) persons, negative stereotypes persist. Despite these depictions, most LGBT people manage to cope with adversity, thrive, and develop increased self-efficacy along with personal resilience. This paper describes the process of developing and validating a rapid assessment instrument aimed at identifying personal hardiness, a central component of resilience in LGBT persons. Incorporating the conceptual intersection of three primary social constructs — stress/coping, self-efficacy, and social stigma — the Courage to Challenge Scale offers practitioners a more culturally relevant understanding of LGBT client populations. The implications are described; in particular, opportunities for more comprehensive assessment and utilization of client strengths. Implications for future research are identified.

The Courage to Challenge: A New Measure of Hardiness in LGBT Adults

Supervision is an integral part of the social work profession and has played a significant role in the education and socialization of new members. Focusing on expectations of the supervisory conference, the authors explored multidimensional perceptions of supervision from the student, faculty and field instructor's perspective. The findings underscore the importance of communication and the need for more attention to some of the less well defined variables of supervision, such as the way supervision is conducted and the content of supervisory sessions.

Multidimensional Expectations of Student Supervision in Social Work

The 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards identified 10 core competencies that all social work graduates should master. MSW programs found themselves with a need to identify knowledge, values, and skill statements that reflected what concentration-year students were expected to know and be able to do. In 2009 a group of educators convened at the Council on Social Work Education in Alexandria, VA to develop a model of advanced practice in clinical social work. This article describes the work group's process; identifies and describes the resulting advanced clinical knowledge, values, and skills statements; discusses the key debates and issues that arose during the development of the statements; and concludes with the implications for social work education and practice.

An Educator's Guide to the Development of Advanced Practice Competencies in Clinical Social Work.

This report describes a qualitative study of the perceptions of child mental health practitioners about their own profession, as revealed through their drawings (N = 66). Thirty-three therapists participated in a developmental play therapy training workshop and drew “a picture of a child therapist” pre- and post-training. A content analysis generated 6 categories that were used to rate the drawings: the perceived age of the therapist figure, its body posture, the position of the figure to the ground line, its attentiveness toward the child figure, its differentiation from the child figure, and the placement of play and art materials depicted in the picture. Post-training drawings suggested that participant perceptions had changed. Although the figures representing therapists did not appear as adults in most of the drawings, there were a greater number of child images pictured with the therapist in the post-training drawings, and play and art materials were placed more peripherally. Overall findin...

Susan W. Gray

Papers

The Courage to Challenge: A New Measure of Hardiness in LGBT Adults

Multidimensional Expectations of Student Supervision in Social Work

An Educator's Guide to the Development of Advanced Practice Competencies in Clinical Social Work.

Perspectives of Child Therapists as Revealed Through Therapist Drawings

A phenomenological inquiry into practitioner experiences of developmental play therapy: Implications for training in touch.