Building culturally sensitive substance use prevention and treatment programs for transgendered populations.

Studies show that transgendered individuals are at high risk for substance use problems. It is important to identify the unique needs and concerns of these individuals and culturally sensitive programs that will be successful in recruiting and retaining these individuals in drug abuse treatment services. This involves incorporating the needs of services from the perspectives of both the transgendered community and health-care professionals. It is the purpose of this article to discuss transgenderism as well as the substance use problems and difficulties within substance use treatment that transgendered men and women may face. This article presents guidelines for the design and evaluation of health-care services to transgendered populations.

Correcting deficiencies in HIV/AIDS care for transgendered individuals.

Studies suggest that transgendered individuals are at high risk for acquiring HIV through injection drug use and sexual risk behaviors. Beginning efforts are being directed to identify the unique needs and concerns of these individuals and to develop culturally sensitive programs that will be successful in recruiting and retaining these individuals in drug abuse and HIV treatment services. These efforts include examining the available and needed services from the perspectives of both the transgendered community and health care professionals. This article reviews the phenomenon of transgenderism and the social context that places these individuals at risk for HIV. Additionally, this article proposes some guidelines for those who are in positions responsible for designing, evaluating, and implementing existing health care services to transgendered populations.

Integration within a transgender social network and its effect upon members' social and political activity.

The purpose of this study is to examine the male to female transgender social networks and how they influence social and political activity. Four Transgender organizations within Northeast Ohio were contacted for this study. Members were asked to complete a questionnaire and to mail it back. Few of the network elements were useful in predicting social and political activity. Network size has a positive effect upon a person's social and political activity, as did meeting attendance. This study suggests the importance of social networks for Trans-people.

Gender violence: transgender experiences with violence and discrimination.

There is a pervasive pattern of discrimination and prejudice against transgendered people within society. Both economic discrimination and experiencing violence could be the result of a larger social climate that severely sanctions people for not conforming to society's norms concerning gender; as such, both would be strongly associated with each other. Questionnaires were distributed to people either through events or through volunteers, and made available upon the World Wide Web. A sample of 402 cases was collected over the span of 12 months (April 1996-April 1997). We found that over half the people within this sample experienced some form of harassment or violence within their lifetime, with a quarter experiencing a violent incident. Further investigation found that experiencing economic discrimination because one is transgendered had the strongest association with experiencing a transgender related violent incident. Economic discrimination was related to transgendered people's experience with violence. Therefore, both hate crimes legislation and employment protections are needed for transgendered individuals.

Work conditions, mastery and psychological distress: are housework and paid work contexts conceptually similar?

This research examined how the conditions of paid work and unpaid housework were related to women's sense of mastery, depressed mood and anxiety. The data for these analyses were taken from the American Changing Lives (ACL) survey (House, 1986). This research draws from a subsample of 992 black and non-Hispanic white women aged 24 to 59. The conditions of work on the job and in the home are not consistently related to women's psychological functioning. Among employed women, decision latitude on the job is related to depressed mood indirectly through their sense of mastery; the physical demands of work are directly related to depressed mood, but the effect is stronger among employed women than employed homemakers. In contrast, decision latitude at home is directly related to depressed mood among homemakers; the physical demands of housework are related to depressed mood only indirectly through women's sense of mastery. This pattern is repeated in the relationship between anxiety and decision latitude both at home and on the job, and in the relationship between anxiety and physical demands of work on the job. Both unpaid housework and paid work are forms of productive activity, but these findings suggest they are not a ubiquitous entity with similar effects for all women. Rather the context of work shapes the effect of work conditions for women's psychological functioning.