Date of Award

Summer 8-22-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Psychology

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

First Advisor

Kateri McRae

Second Advisor

Kathryn Fox

Third Advisor

Kim Gorgens

Fourth Advisor

Paige Lloyd

Fifth Advisor

Michelle Rozenman

Sixth Advisor

Nick Perry

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

All Rights Reserved
All Rights Reserved.

Keywords

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD), Minority stressors, Emotion regulation, Psychology

Abstract

Transgender and/or gender diverse (TGD) individuals experience unique stressors related to their gender, known as minority stressors which can result in several negative downstream consequences including psychopathology. Emotion regulation is theorized to be a critical process involved in the relationship between minority stress and psychopathology, although emotion regulation is understudied in TGD individuals. Specifically, there is a gap in our understanding of how often (i.e., tendency), and to what ability (i.e., success) TGD individuals use specific emotion regulation strategies.

This dissertation aimed to increase our understanding of emotion regulation tendency and success in TGD individuals, particularly in the context of minority stress. Study one focused on the tendency to use expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal across contexts, valence, and gender. In study two, I examined the ability of reappraisal, coupled with positive mood contexts, to successfully decrease negative emotions elicited by minority stressors.

In my first study, I found TGD individuals generally reported using suppression more often and reappraisal less often than cisgender women. I also found that that TGD individuals significantly increased their use of reappraisal and decreased their use of suppression at Burning Man. In addition, transgender women reported the highest levels of suppression of positive emotions compared to the other TGD groups, however this difference was not significant at Burning Man.

In the second study, I observed that minority specific stressors produced stronger negative emotions than general stressors and that a gender-specific positive mood induction produced the strongest mood repair effect. Reappraisal significantly increased positive emotions when not preceded by a positive mood induction and either increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions or did not change emotions when it was preceded by a positive mood induction. Across studies I found more effects for positive emotions than negative emotions and that different contexts influence emotion regulation tendency and success differently. More specifically, I found that alternative festival contexts increase the use of reappraisal and decrease the use of suppression. Additionally, I found that positive mood contexts may serve to decrease reappraisal success. I discuss the implications of these findings for policy, clinical work, and affective science.

Copyright Date

8-2026

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Nadia Kako

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

166 pgs

File Size

1.1 MB

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Available for download on Sunday, September 24, 2028



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