Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to expand upon the work of Tanimoto and Miwa (2021) by examining factors that contribute to the acceptance of or discrimination against transgender athletes. Several hypotheses were explored: participants would rate the transgender athlete more positively when described as a transgender man or when taking hormones; cisgender women would express less prejudice towards transgender people and would report less gender-segregated transprejudice than cisgender men; women with a strong athletic identity would report more gender-segregated transprejudice; and there would be an association between strong beliefs about the discreteness, homogeneity, and informativeness of gender identity and weak beliefs about the naturalness of gender identity and more transprejudice. Participants read a vignette about a hypothetical transgender athlete who was interested in playing college level sports. Participants completed ratings on the transgender athlete, Context-Dependent Transprejudice scale, Athletic Identity Measure, and Gender Identity Beliefs Scale. Data was gathered from 100 different universities, from all 50 states. Participants were predominately cisgender women, heterosexual, and White. Participants had more positive attitudes toward the trans man athlete than the trans woman athlete; the hormone status of the hypothetical transgender athlete was not a significant factor for predicting participant attitudes towards them. Less gender-segregated transprejudice, a non-heterosexual orientation, and beliefs that gender identity is fluid and different gender identities are natural, predicted positive attitudes toward the trans athlete. Athletic identity was not a significant predictor of attitudes towards the hypothetical transgender athlete. Additionally, participants who played team sports had more positive attitudes toward the trans man athlete than the trans woman athlete; participants who played individual sports rated the trans athlete similarly regardless of the trans athletes gender identity. Lastly, contact with trans people generally, but not trans athletes, predicted less transprejudice and more positive attitudes toward trans athletes. Understanding how and why transgender athletes experience discrimination allows humanity to step forward with social change and create safer spaces for people of all genders. It is important to allow everyone to engage in athletic activities due to the high prevalence of depression and anxiety within the transgender community that could be alleviated by engaging in sports and other physical activities (De Moor et al., 2006; Dhejne et al., 2011).

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