Measuring minority stress: invariance of a discrimination and vigilance scale across transgender and cisgender LGBQ individuals

The Minority Stress Model posits that experiences of proximal and distal stress increase gender and sexual minority risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes. Psychological researchers of minority stress have utilised a variety of measures to capture these stressors, but currently no measures have been assessed for invariance across transgender and LGBQ individuals. The present study assessed the measurement invariance of the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS) and the Discrimination-Related Vigilance Scale (DRVS) across transgender (n = 460) and cisgender LGBQ (n = 523) individuals. The EDS demonstrated partial metric invariance across transgender and cisgender, and within gender identities of transgender individuals. While the DRVS demonstrated complete metric invariance across transgender and cisgender, and partial metric invariance within gender identities among transgender respondents. In general, transgender individuals reported more discrimination and vigilance than cisgender LGBQ individuals. This research is the first to compare the structure of measures of LGBTQ-related minority stress. Uncovered non-invariance provides evidence for difference in minority stress patterns for transgender women and men. Results suggest invariance testing may help identify differences in minority stress experiences across LGBTQ identities and increase the validity of analyses that compare multi-item measures across groups.