Abstract
Objective
Identify the presence of mental suffering, family support and empowerment of transgender people living in the State of Alagoas, Brazil.
Methods
Cross-sectional, descriptive, quantitative study. Transgender people over 18 years old who lived in the State of Alagoas were included in the study. The interviews were carried out on the Google Meet platform, through telephone and WhatsApp. The following instruments were used: Identification Questionnaire, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Depression Scale, Perceived Family Support Inventory and Empowerment Scale. The data were entered into the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 23 software, and analyzed by calculating frequencies, means, standard deviation and the Pearson Chi-Square test.
Results
37 transgender people were interviewed, with an average age of 27.35 years, self-reported black/brown color (91.8%), presenting suicidal ideation in the last year (48.6%), attempted suicide (35.1%), risk for depression (64.9%) and low family support (94.6%). Transgender and pansexual women presented a greater anxious personality trait and transgender and bisexual women experienced a greater anxious state. There was greater impairment in heterosexual people in the Affective-Consistent dimension; in pansexual people, in the Family Adaptation dimension; in bisexual people, in the Family Autonomy dimension. Community Activism was more committed to empowering transgender people.
Conclusion
The weaknesses in family relationships, combined with the conditions of violence and prejudice experienced in the face of the difficulty of many in living with diversity, may be contributing to the mental suffering of transgender people. Thoughts about actions aimed at promoting their empowerment are essential, in a support network that can be internal and external to their family.
Transgender persons; Mental health; Anxiety; Depression