Social Perception and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G3, Canada.
Arch Sex Behav. 2018 May;47(4):963-972. doi: 10.1007/s10508-017-1095-1. Epub 2017 Oct 25.
Voices convey important social information about an individual's identity, including gender. This is especially relevant to transgender individuals, who cite voice alteration as a primary goal of the gender alignment process. Although the voice is a primary target of testosterone therapy among female-to-male (FTM) trans people, little research has explored the effects of such changes on their psychological well-being. Here, we investigated how FTMs' vocal gender related to their well-being. A total of 77 FTMs (M = 25.45 years, SD = 6.77) provided voice samples and completed measures of their well-being and psychological health. An independent group of 32 naïve raters (M = 22.16 years, SD = 8.21) subsequently rated the voice samples for masculinity. We found that FTMs whose voices sounded more congruent with their experienced gender (i.e., sounded more masculine) reported greater well-being (better life satisfaction, quality of life, and self-esteem; lower levels of anxiety and depression) than FTMs with less gender congruent (i.e., more feminine) voices (β = .48). The convergence between outwardly perceived vocal gender and gender identity brought about through hormone replacement therapy may therefore support greater well-being for FTMs.
声音传达了关于个体身份的重要社会信息，包括性别。这对于跨性别者尤其重要，他们将声音改变列为性别认同过程的主要目标。尽管在女性到男性（FTM）跨性别者中，睾丸激素治疗主要针对声音，但很少有研究探讨这种变化对他们心理健康的影响。在这里，我们研究了 FTM 声音的性别与他们幸福感之间的关系。共有 77 名 FTM（M=25.45 岁，SD=6.77）提供了声音样本，并完成了幸福感和心理健康的测量。一个由 32 名不知情的评分者组成的独立小组（M=22.16 岁，SD=8.21）随后对声音样本进行了男性化评分。我们发现，声音与他们经历的性别更一致（即听起来更男性化）的 FTM 报告的幸福感更高（生活满意度、生活质量和自尊更高；焦虑和抑郁水平更低），而声音性别一致性较低（即更女性化）的 FTM 则幸福感较低（β=0.48）。通过激素替代疗法实现的外在感知声音性别和性别认同的一致性可能因此支持 FTM 更高的幸福感。
