A growing body of literature suggests that how much support TGD individuals experience in the places they live, including their present context and context of origin, can influence their wellbeing. Other research about physical health has found exposure to stressors has physiological effects on sexual and gender minority people, which can be measured through allostatic load (a selection of multiple physiological indicators that reflects “wear and tear” on the body; AL). Research on mental health has also indicated that TGD individuals are at higher risk of depression and anxiety. TGD populations also have unique resilience factors that are important to consider, such as pride and community connectedness, which may influence health outcomes. This study used latent class analysis to examine how individuals clustered based on current and past levels of contextual support, and then examined the relationship between these classes and AL, depression, and anxiety, including whether pride and community connectedness moderated these relationships. Contextual support across the lifetime was also examined as a continuous variable. Participants either had lived consistently in contexts with high levels of support (High Support class), had moved from contexts with low levels of support to high levels of support (Low to High Support class), or had consistently lived in contexts with low levels of support (Low Support class). Individuals in the Low Support class had lower levels of AL compared to their peers in the High Support class. There were no associations between class and depression and anxiety, and there were no moderating effects of community connectedness or pride. This study suggests that contextual support may not influence depression and anxiety among TGD people, but that lower levels of support may actually correlate with decreased AL.
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