Resilience and psychological distress among asexual transgender adults

Background Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) adults experience elevated minority stress and mental health disparities, yet TGD samples are often not characterized with respect to sexual orientation. Asexual identities are disproportionately represented among TGD populations, and quantitative research on resilience among asexual TGD adults is limited.Aims This cross-sectional study examined (1) whether resilience was negatively associated with psychological distress among asexual TGD adults and (2), on an exploratory basis, whether resilience moderated associations between minority stressors and distress.Methods Participants were 275 asexual TGD adults residing in the United States who completed a fully online survey in October 2021 and provided complete data on all modeled variables. Participants completed the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10), the Daily Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire (DHEQ), and the Protective Factors for Resilience Scale (PFRS). Hierarchical multiple regression controlled for age and annual income.Results Resilience was uniquely and negatively associated with psychological distress (β = −0.33, p < .001), supporting Hypothesis 1. Vigilance (β = 0.19) and gender expression minority stress (β = 0.14) showed unique positive associations with distress; the remaining stressors were correlated with distress bivariately but retained no unique associations, a pattern consistent with shared variance among intercorrelated stressors. Exploratory resilience × stressor interactions were nonsignificant; because power for interaction effects of plausible magnitude was low, these null results are uninformative regarding stress buffering. Supplementary domain-specific analyses indicated that the resilience–distress association was primarily attributable to personal resources.Discussion Findings provide preliminary evidence that resilience resources, particularly personal resources, are associated with lower distress among asexual TGD adults, underscoring the need for identity-specific measures and adequately powered tests of stress buffering.