Bem-estar de pessoas transsexuais: a contribuição da psicologia positiva

Abstract

Transgender and transvestite identities, as identities that push the man/woman binary and cis/heteronormativity boundaries constitute unique and multiple ways of existing. This work aims to expand the psychology field in theoretical and practical aspects that are produced about transgender identities. Based on the positive psychology approach, it explores the participants’ perception about their own well-being, and its relation with resilience, social support, thriving and values. The first study consists of a systematic review of the academic production in psychology and related fields about transgender and transvestite identities from 2010 to 2015. The research was made in 33 data bases, indexed by Portal Periódicos CAPES, using the terms transexualidade, travesti, transmasculinidade e transexualismo (in Portuguese only). A total of 34 papers were included. The results show a big diversity in fields that are currently interested in gender identity studies, and because of that a big number of themes were found. The second study is an explanatory model of transsexuals’ subjective well-being. It was a qualitative study, using online survey containing sociodemographic aspects, subjective well-being scale, brief resilience scale, thriving scale and basic values scale. The data were analyzed with the software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The multiple linear regression model, using stepwise method, explained 50,3% of subjective well-being, using the health state, social support, optimism and education access. Conclusions point that the positive psychology is an interesting field to build a knowledge committed with transgender identities despathologization. It’s shown the importance of psychology in many spaces like, schools, health system and organizations, to bring up sexual and gender diversity and promoting inclusion.