Aspects of Psychological Resilience among Transgender Youth

Racialized science seeks to explain human population differences in health, intelligence, education, and wealth as the consequence of immutable, biologically based differences between "racial" groups. Recent advances in the sequencing of the human genome and in an understanding of biological correlates of behavior have fueled racialized science, despite evidence that racial groups are not genetically discrete, reliably measured, or scientifically meaningful. Yet even these counterarguments often fail to take into account the origin and history of the idea of race. This article reviews the origins of the concept of race, placing the contemporary discussion of racial differences in an anthropological and historical context. (c) 2005 APA

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed.

As awareness of transgender men and women grows among health care educators, researchers, policymakers, and clinicians of all types, the need to create more inclusive settings also grows. Greater sensitivity and relevant information and services are required in dealing with transgender men and women. These individuals need their identities to be recognized as authentic, they need better access to health care resources, and they need education and prevention material appropriate to their experience. In addition, a need exists for activities designed to enhance understanding of transgender health issues and to spur innovation.