Using mental health screening instruments for understanding depression and personality profiles among Chinese transgender individuals

Abstract

This study assessed the depression status of transgender individuals and their personality profiles for seeing the psychological functioning. We further compared their status with cisgender individuals and explored the role of personality profiles in explaining the variance of depression level among transgender and cisgender individuals. Seventy-one transgender individuals and seventy-three cisgender individuals were investigated in Shanghai Mental Health Centre. The general depression level and personality profiles of transgender individuals remained normative range, but percentages of transgender individuals who reported moderate or major symptoms and poor personality profiles were significantly higher than those of cisgender counterparts. Subscale scores of paranoia and psychopathic deviate significantly contributed to the variance of depression level among transgender people in multiple regression model. This study sheds light on the psychological needs of transgender people, which provided healthcare providers with the implications of developing psychological intervention programmes and mental health services.