5 - (IOP 28) Effects of Romantic and Sexual Relationship Involvement on Depression and Substance Use Problems Among Transgender Young People

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals experience strikingly high rates of depression and substance use disorders, largely due to societal stigma. An important component of developing efforts to address these disparities is to identify protective factors against these adverse outcomes within the TGD community. Involvement in a romantic relationship is a well-established protective factor among heterosexual cisgender adults, and a newly identified protective factor for sexual minority adults. However, the effects of romantic involvement on TGD mental health remain unstudied, as do the effects of sexual partnerships. To address these gaps, we used multiwave longitudinal data to explore whether TGD young adults experience fewer depressive symptoms and substance use problems at times when involved in sexual or romantic relationships than at times when they have no involvement.

Method: Participants were drawn from 218 TGD young adults (128 assigned female at birth[AFAB]; 90 assigned male at birth [AMAB]). At seven assessments over 4 years, we measured current relationship involvement (romantic, sexual-only, none), depressive symptoms, and alcohol- and cannabis-use problems. Data were analyzed using multilevel structural equation modeling in Mplus. In separate models predicting each outcome, we tested for within-person associations of relationship involvement with depression, alcohol use problems, and cannabis use problems. Cross-level interactions tested if these associations differed between AMAB and AFAB.

Results. TGD reported fewer depressive symptoms at times when they reported either a romantic partner (beta = -1.37, SE = 0.55, p < .05) or a sexual partner (beta = -1.29, SE = 0.50, p < .01) than at times when they reported no partners. There were no associations between romantic involvement and alcohol or cannabis use problems. Among TGD-AMAB, involvement in sexual-only relationships was associated with higher levels of cannabis use problems.

Conclusions: Involvement in romantic relationships appears to protect against depressive symptoms, but not substance use problems, among TGD individuals. Sexual-only partnerships may raise risk for problematic cannabis use among TGD-AMAB. These findings suggest that efforts to reduce depression in TGD populations might benefit from inclusion of strategies to promote involvement in healthy romantic relationships.

Conclusions: Involvement in romantic relationships appears to protect against depressive symptoms, but not substance use problems, among TGD individuals. These findings suggest that efforts to reduce depression in TGD populations might benefit from inclusion of strategies to promote involvement in healthy romantic relationships.