Psychological Interventions Promoting Resilience Among Transgender Individuals: Transgender Resilience Intervention Model (TRIM)

Abstract

Transgender people experience disproportionately high mental and physical health risks. Minority stress theory identifies distal and proximal stressors that contribute to negative mental health outcomes for transgender people, and suggests that resilience factors can buffer the negative influence of these stressors. In this article, we aim to synthesize the psychological literature on resilience strategies among transgender people and position it within the minority stress framework and introduce an adapted model called the transgender resilience intervention model (TRIM). The TRIM suggests that social support, community belonging, family acceptance, participating in activism, having positive role models, and being a positive role model are group-level resilience factors. Self-worth, self-acceptance and/or pride, self-definition, hope, and transition are individual-level factors that promote resilience. Community, group, and individual interventions and their potential influence on resilience are discussed. The model calls for the development of additional interventions aimed at increasing resilience for transgender people.