The Relationship Between Anti-Transgender Experiences (A Proxy for Minority Stress) and Heavy Alcohol Use Among Transgender Adults

Purpose: Although several studies have shown a relationship between anti-transgender experiences and binge drinking and/or hazardous drinking, very little research has examined how these experiences relate to heavy drinking. That is the focus of this study. Methods: This paper uses data from the 2015 National Transgender Survey, and is based on a sample of 17,367 transgender adults residing in the United States. Analyses compare three groups: current "regular" drinkers (drank at least some alcohol during the previous month but no days consuming five or more drinks) (n = 10,496), binge drinkers (consumption of five or more drinks on at least one occasion during the previous month) (n = 4977), and heavy drinkers (five or more drinks per day on five or more days during the previous month) (n = 1894). The paper focuses on how anti-transgender experiences with harassment, discrimination, and/or violence (a 20-item scale measure, Cronbach's alpha = 0.76) are related to people's classification as current drinkers versus binge drinkers versus heavy drinkers. Results: 13.8% of the participants met the criteria for heavy drinking; 26.4% more were classified as binge drinkers. The more anti-transgender experiences people had, the more likely they were to engage in heavy drinking. Multivariate analyses revealed that this relationship was a robust one, holding up even when numerous other potentially confounding control measures were included in the analyses. Conclusions: Anti-transgender experiences are a strong predictor of heavy drinking. This type of minority stressor is an important consideration when understanding what leads many transgender individuals to become heavy drinkers.