Relationship Stigma Negatively Impacts Trans Women's Relationship Quality

Emmy S Schuler^1,2*Pilar C Sharp³Omotayo N Fasan⁴Araya J Mcneal⁵Tae-Young Zajkowski⁶Vinita Saxena⁷Audrey Xu⁸Bow Suprasert⁹Sean Arayasirikul¹⁰Alexander J Marr¹¹Kelly D Taylor¹¹Willi McFarland⁹Erin C Wilson⁹

• ¹Vanderbilt University, Nashville, United States
• ²Department of Medicine, Health, and Society, College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States
• ³Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
• ⁴Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
• ⁵Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, United States
• ⁶University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
• ⁷Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• ⁸Department of Biology, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
• ⁹San Francisco Department of Public Health, San Francisco, California, United States
• ¹⁰Department of Health, Society, and Behavior, Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, United States
• ¹¹Institute for Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

Background: Trans women face negative health outcomes due to multiple types of anti-trans stigma. Relationship stigma, or when people experience stigma because their romantic partnerships are devalued by society, can negatively impact trans women's experiences in relationships. Relationships and their quality are important predictors of wellness across populations, but little is known about relationship quality for trans women. This study was conducted to determine if relationship stigma is associated with relationship quality for trans women with main partners. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data from 89 trans women with main partners enrolled in the 2020 Partners Study, an online, interviewer-administered, cross-sectional survey of trans women in the San Francisco Bay Area. Multivariate logistic was used to test for an association between relationship stigma and relationship quality among trans women with main partners. Results: Trans women surveyed were White (29.2%), Latinx (24.7%), or multiracial (23.6%), with the majority having never been married (65.2%). Those who often felt they must hide their partnerships had significantly lower odds of reporting satisfaction with intimacy and closeness in their relationships (OR 0.07; 95% CI 0.01-0.68, p = 0.02) and of reporting satisfaction with their overall relationship (OR 0.02; 95% CI 0.02-0.34, p < 0.01). Those whose families were not supportive of their partnerships had significantly lower odds of reporting relationship satisfaction, intimacy and closeness with their main partners (OR 0.08; 95% CI 0.01-0.85, p = 0.04) and of reporting satisfaction with their overall relationship (OR 0.08; 95% CI 0.00, 0.51, p = 0.01). Relationship stigma was negatively associated with relationship quality for trans women with main partners in this study. Stigma from family also had a significant negative impact on relationship quality, suggesting the important influence of family on trans women's relationships. Efforts to boost family support may foster intimacy and improve relationship satisfaction for trans women in main partnerships.