IMPROVING SURVEY MEASUREMENT QUESTIONS FOR SEXUAL MINORITIES AND THE TRANS POPULATION: TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED NATURE OF THE TRANS LIFE COURSE

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dc.contributor.advisorMilkie, Melissaen_US
dc.contributor.advisorMoghadam, Lindaen_US
dc.contributor.authorRyan, John Michaelen_US
dc.contributor.departmentSociologyen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2013-07-06T05:31:29Z
dc.date.available2013-07-06T05:31:29Z
dc.date.issued2013en_US
dc.description.abstractSexual minorities are a hidden population who are difficult for social researchers to analyze well. One specific group of sexual minorities, the transgender population, and how they understand their sometimes changing identities, may be especially complex to study. Not only is this sometimes a hidden population, but they may only identify as transgender at certain points in the life course, preferring other identity categories at different life stages and in different circumstances. I use the shortened term "trans" to refer to all members of what the hegemonic gendered order would consider gender non-conforming. Using the overarching sociological concepts of social constructionism and classification and drawing on a life course perspective, this dissertation explores how the self-identity of members of the trans community might shift across the life course. The goal then is to better understand trans identity awareness and developments across the life course in order to make better sense of existing survey data as well as to improve future questions related to trans identity. Analysis for this dissertation drew upon data collected from 139 in-depth cognitive interviews in both English and Spanish from a project related to testing a new sexual identity question for the National Health Interview Survey conducted by the Questionnaire Design Research Laboratory at the National Center for Health Statistics to explore how survey wording affects what researchers know, or think they know, about sexual identity distribution, particularly as it relates to trans identity. It also drew upon data collected from 10 in-depth qualitative interviews done with members of the trans community in order to explore how an understanding of the trans life course enables us to make better sense of the ways in which this group identifies on official surveys. A sociological approach, one particularly embedded in social constructionism, was used to address the improvement of a survey research question.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/14359
dc.subject.pqcontrolledSociologyen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledGender studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledGenderen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledLife Courseen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSexualityen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSocial Constructionismen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledSurvey Researchen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledTransgenderen_US
dc.titleIMPROVING SURVEY MEASUREMENT QUESTIONS FOR SEXUAL MINORITIES AND THE TRANS POPULATION: TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED NATURE OF THE TRANS LIFE COURSEen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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