Transgender College Students More Likely to Struggle with Mental Health

 

As growing numbers of young people report struggling with mental health issues, colleges and universities across the United States are working to meet their students’ needs.

But a new study suggests that one group of students is facing these issues more than any other: transgender students. And some experts worry that many schools may not be doing enough to meet their needs.

Transgender people are people who no longer identify with their sex from birth. They feel they are really members of the opposite sex. Many often change their name, appearance and even undergo medical treatments to help match, or keep up with, the way they feel.

In 2016, about 1.4 million Americans identified themselves as transgender. That number comes from the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles’ School of Law.

Earlier research has shown a growing number of U.S. college students have reported depression, anxiety or other mental health issues in recent years. This latest study attempts to examine the specific problems transgender students face. The findings were published last month in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Researchers looked at information from an internet-based survey called the Healthy Minds Study. It involved 65,000 adults who studied at 71 U.S. colleges and universities between 2015 and 2017. All of them were questioned about their mental health.

Out of that group, about 1,200 students reported having an alternate² gender¹ identity, meaning they do not identify with their birth sex. The researchers found that almost 80 percent of those students reported dealing³ with at least one mental health issue. For comparison purposes, 45 percent of cisgender students -- those who identified as their birth sex -- reported having a mental health issue.

Sarah Ketchen Lipson is an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. She was one of the lead researchers for the Healthy Minds Study. She also helped to prepare the report on transgender students.

Lipson argues one troubling thing about the findings is not just that transgender students were more likely to face mental health issues than other students. Transgender students also were more likely to face every single kind of mental issue raised in the study, especially thoughts of suicide⁴ and attempting suicide.

There are many reasons for this, she says. Some causes of mental health problems can affect transgender students long before they ever go to college. For example, there are higher rates of family abandonment and homelessness, notes Lipson.

Once they do enter college, transgender students still face difficulties that may not be as clear to cisgender people, she says. Many U.S. colleges and universities are at least somewhat supportive of gay and lesbian students. But there still barriers to transgender students feeling fully⁵ accepted.

This includes the fact that many schools force students to use their birth name or gender pronoun and make changing this information on school records difficult. Restrooms are meant only to be used by people of a specific sex. And while schools may have policies to prevent discrimination against gay or lesbian students, their policies often fail to identify transgender individuals. Lipson suggests that all of these seemingly⁶ minor⁷ issues can intensify⁸ existing mental health problems, if not create new ones.

The report’s findings do not surprise Shane Windemeyer. He is the executive⁹ director of Campus Pride, one of the largest organizations supporting lesbian, gay and transgender college students in the United States.

Windemeyer notes while most colleges and universities employ trained specialists to support different minority groups, that is not the case for trans students.

“Trans folks are not even visible on many college campuses,” he says. “They are not seen as a population to serve, still on many campuses.”

Windemeyer adds that dealing with all of these mental health issues makes higher education seem much harder for these young people. Mental health problems make success in their studies that much harder, he says. What is worse, most schools do not even give students the choice to report their chosen sexual¹⁰ identity on official documents. So administrators¹¹ have no way of knowing how well or how poorly they are serving transgender students, he says.

Windemeyer argues that to know how to better help such students, school officials must be open to understanding their needs. This comes through a willingness to make changes, when needed. But he and Lipson agree that it also comes from being better informed.

Schools must employ physical and mental health experts who understand the issues transgender students face. But they also must teach cisgender students, professors and employees to be accepting of and communicate with trans students in ways that make them feel welcome.

“Allyship requires education,” said Lipson. “It requires knowledge. It’s not enough to be well-intentioned.

I’m Alice Bryant.

And I’m Pete Musto.

Words in This Story

anxiety – n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

specific – adj. special or particular

survey – n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

abandonment – n. the act of leaving and never returning to someone who needs protection or help

gay – adj. used to describe a man who is sexually¹² attracted to other men

lesbian – adj. used to describe a woman who is sexually attracted to other women

pronoun – n. a word, such as I, he, she, you, it, we, or they, that is used instead of a noun or noun phrase

visible – n. able to be seen

campus(es) – n. the area and buildings around a university, college, or school

well-intentioned – adj. having or showing a desire to do something good but often producing bad results

1 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

2 alternate   

adj.交替的，间隔的；v.（使）轮流　　

参考例句：

• He and I clean our room on alternate days.我和他隔日轮流打扫我们的房间。
• That was a week of alternate rain and sunshine.那是晴雨天交替的一周。

3 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

4 suicide   

n.自杀，自毁，自杀性行为

参考例句：

• The number of suicide has increased.自杀案件的数量增加了。
• The death was adjudged a suicide by sleeping pills.该死亡事件被判定为服用安眠药自杀。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 seemingly   

adv.从表面上看起来，似乎是

参考例句：

• Seemingly,we can do nothing to prevent this from happening.我们似乎没有什么办法阻止这件事发生。
• For several seemingly interminable seconds no one spoke.有几秒钟没有人讲话，这几秒钟似乎十分漫长。

7 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

8 intensify   

vt.加强；变强；加剧

参考例句：

• We must intensify our educational work among our own troops.我们必须加强自己部队的教育工作。
• They were ordered to intensify their patrols to protect our air space.他们奉命加强巡逻，保卫我国的领空。

9 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

10 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

11 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

12 sexually   

adv.性别上地；按性别地；性欲地；两性之间地

参考例句：

• to be sexually promiscuous 性生活淫乱
• I was depressed,withdrawn and sexually frigid. 我郁郁寡欢，离群索居，没有什么性要求。 来自《简明英汉词典》