The effect of misgendering on body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint in transgender individuals: Testing a Misgendering-Congruence Process.

OBJECTIVE

Despite research findings that transgender individuals have higher rates of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating than their cisgender peers, reasons for greater eating pathology remain unclear. We propose a Misgendering-Congruence Process by which being misgendered (i.e., labeled a gender other than that with which one identifies) could lead transgender individuals to feel greater incongruence between their bodies and internal identities, which in turn leads to body dissatisfaction and efforts to bring one's body in line with one's identified gender by engaging in weight and shape control behaviors such as dietary restraint.

METHOD

One hundred and thirty transgender individuals completed measures of misgendering frequency, transgender congruence, body dissatisfaction, and dietary restraint.

RESULTS

Mediation analyses provided preliminary support for the Misgendering-Congruence Process when conducted with the overall sample as well as with transgender subgroups: transgender women (n = 41), transgender men (n = 42), and nonbinary transgender individuals (n = 47).

DISCUSSION

Social recognition of transgender people's gender identities appears to play a unique role in their body satisfaction and restrained eating behaviors.