Emotion regulation strategies and coping self-efficacy as moderators of daily associations between transgender and gender diverse (TGD) enacted stigma and affect among TGD young adults assigned female at birth

Background: Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) studies have begun to establish links between sexual minority enacted stigma and anxious/depressed affect at the daily level. However, few of these studies have examined the effects of the unique stigma experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. Further, the potential moderating roles of emotion regulation strategies (i.e., strategies used to up- or down-regulate emotions) and coping self-efficacy (i.e., individuals' perceptions of their ability to cope effectively with stressors) have been neglected in EMA research on enacted stigma.

Methods: The current study aimed to extend this literature by examining the moderating roles of six emotion regulation strategies (i.e., reflection, reappraisal, rumination, expressive suppression, distraction, social sharing) and coping self-efficacy on concurrent and prospective associations between TGD enacted stigma and affect using EMA data from 115 sexual minority gender diverse individuals assigned female at birth.

Results: Results indicated that coping self-efficacy buffered prospective associations between TGD enacted stigma and anxious/depressed affect, while rumination exacerbated these effects. Some unexpected buffering effects were identified in concurrent associations between enacted stigma and negative affect, with suppression and distraction temporarily tempering this association. However, suppression also prospectively predicted increases in negative affect, suggesting that any benefit of this emotion regulation strategy is temporary.

Conclusions: Findings highlight emotion regulation strategies that may be effective in reducing negative affect, identify coping self-efficacy as a promising buffer of effects of enacted stigma, and confirm emotion regulation strategies that may exacerbate effects of enacted stigma.