Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Educational Psychology & Research

Committee Chair

Yonghong Xu

Committee Member

Leigh Harrell-Williams

Committee Member

Richard Lightsey

Committee Member

Elin Ovrebo

Abstract

Background: Evidence suggests that transgender individuals face high levels of prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Despite the known negative impact of transgender prejudice, research is lacking on interventions to reduce transgender prejudice. One possible solution might be found in the intergroup contact theory, which has substantial empirical support as an effective strategy to reduce prejudice across diverse populations and situations. Aims: The present study sought to apply the intergroup contact theory to the study of transgender prejudice. First, the study developed and pilot tested the performance of the Transgender Affect Misattribution Procedure (Transgender AMP), a measure of implicit transgender prejudice. Second, the study examined the direct effects of contact (quality and quantity) on transgender prejudice (explicit and implicit). Lastly, the study explored the mediating role of intergroup anxiety in the relationship between contact and prejudice.Method: First, to develop and test the performance of the Transgender AMP, a three-part study was conducted via Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (Study 1). Second, an online MTurk sample of 354 individuals completed an online survey for the main study (Study 2). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) procedures were used for analysis of the survey data.Findings: The Transgender AMP performed as expected and its scores demonstrated preliminary evidence of validity and reliability. Quantity of contact had a unique inverse association with implicit transgender prejudice, whereas quality of contact had a unique inverse relationship with both explicit and implicit transgender prejudice. Intergroup anxiety mediated the relationships between quality of contact and implicit and explicit transgender prejudice, but not quantity of contact and implicit transgender prejudice.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest

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