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Societal Stress Driving Trans, Gender-Diverse To Drink
- July 11, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Societal stress could be driving some transgender and gender-diverse people to the bottle, a small-scale study says.
People whose gender identity differs from their birth sex drink more alcohol and engage in more hazardous drinking than cisgender heterosexual peers, according to findings published July 6 in the journal Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Specifically, they drink to cope with increased stress related to their gender identity, based on interviews with 40 transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) Canadians ages 18 to 29.
“Gender minority stress was also related to alcohol-related risk factors, such as psychological distress and negative affect, coping drinking motives, and alcohol craving,” wrote the research team led by Sarah Dermody, an associate professor of psychology at Toronto Metropolitan University in Ontario, Canada.
For the study, researchers tracked the gender minority Canadians for 21 days, using brief daily surveys to track drinking, substance use and psychological stresses.
On average, the participants drank on six of the 21 days, an average of three drinks per occasion, results show. They reported feeling gender-minority stress on 10 of the 21 days.
On days of relatively high stress, participants reported increased drinking. However, they didn’t suffer more alcohol-related harms like blackouts, assaults or risky sex, results show.
“This suggests that gender minority stressors may be more closely associated with TGD youth's daily alcohol intake than harms at the daily level,” researchers wrote. “Stress-related alcohol-related harms may unfold over larger periods of time than at the daily level.”
Gender minority people with relatively high resilience — due to community connection and pride — tended to report less alcohol use and drinking to cope.
But this resilience also prompted participants to drink to fit in, to boost pleasure or to foster bonds, researchers said.
“While correlational, the findings contribute to a growing literature establishing that eliminating gender minority stress should be prioritized,” researchers wrote. “Gender minority stress is pervasive in the day-to-day lives of TGD youth and can be prevented by implementing structural interventions that dismantle transphobic and discriminatory policies and practices.”
More information
The Mayo Clinic has more on health concerns for transgender people.
SOURCES: Research Society on Alcohol, news release, July 3, 2025; Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research, July 3, 2025
