Experiences of life and intersectionality of transgender refugees living in Italy: A qualitative approach

Transgender refugees are at risk of experiencing increased minority stress due to experiences of trauma in their country of origin, and the intersection of multiple marginalized identities in their host country. Adopting a transfeminist and decolonial approach, the present study aimed at exploring transgender refugees’ experiences of life and migration. A semi-structured interview protocol was developed, grounded in the perspectives of minority stress and intersectionality. Participants were five transgender refugees (four women and one non-binary) from different cultural/geographic contexts, professing different religions. Using thematic analysis, the researchers identified three themes: pre- and post-migration minority stress and transphobia; religion as a protective factor for gender affirmation; and individuation and the synthesis of social identities. Participants reported traumatic experiences and the inability to openly live out their gender identity in their country of origin as the main push factors to migration. They also reported feelings of isolation and experiences of victimization during interactions with the Italian asylum services, due to a lack of adequate training, racial prejudice, and transphobia. Participants demonstrated positive individuation, linked to gender affirmation treatments and religious protective factors. The interview protocol may be used by social operators to support the claims of transgender asylum seekers, and to clinically assess transgender people with an immigrant background

Development and validation of a measure for academic locus of control

Previous research highlighted the significant role of locus of control in predicting academic achievement and dropout, emphasizing the need for reliable measures to identify factors that foster academic success. This study aimed to develop an academic locus of control (ALoC) measure. Participants were 432 Italian university students (69 males, 363 females) pursuing bachelor’s (N = 339) and master’s (N = 123) degrees in Italy. The ALoC scale resulted in two factors, internal (6 items) and external ALoC (12 items), which demonstrated satisfactory dimensionality and invariance across students’ gender and attending degree. Internal and external ALoC were, respectively, negatively, and positively associated with academic dropout. This study confirmed the importance of locus of control for academic achievement, suggesting that university programs should address students’ personal sense of failure while promoting a sense of mastery and responsibility for academic outcomes

Who are you and where do you belong?’: Queer Reflexivity in Qualitative Psychological Research

When I was conducting the first step of the participants’ recruitment process for my research, I immediately had to deal with a first, unexpected, “external factor” to manage: one of the people interested in taking part in the research contacted me in order to know some specific characteristics of my identity, such as my age, sexual orientation, and where did I belong in terms of activist background. At that time, I didn’t realize how powerful that situation potentially was, as it represented the beginning of a deep transformation involving several aspects of my personal and academic identity. My research project concerns people aged 60 or more who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, or non-heterosexual (LGBQ+), and involves a mixed-method design that use both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Using an in-depth semi-structured interview (Frost et al., 2019), I try to elicit participants’ memories of meaningful life experiences, as well as their current opinions and feelings concerning the cultural context they live in, and I ask them to define the different aspects describing who they are, namely their social identities. I gradually realized that the function of the interviews was not limited to provide a report of participants’ life experiences, rather they had the potential to augment experiences, alter meanings, and produce change in both the researched and the researcher (Beer, 1997). I therefore started to reflect on my position in the research field: my identity, or rather identities, significantly determined several aspects of the research process, from gaining access to the population to the quality of the content generated through the interview process (Rooke, 2009). As a female-born non-binary (NB) researcher who deals with Italian LGBQ+ older people, I experienced several ways in which my gender identity was involved during the research. For sure, as a primary source of contact and confidence with participants: indeed, older LGBQ+ people are - understandably - often reluctant to talk about the intimate aspects of their life and identity and it is a common struggle for researchers in this field to reach this population. It was common for me - while dealing with the participants in my research - to be perceived as a young lesbian woman - which actually was my main sexual identification for a long time - and to consequently find a personal connection through this kind of channel. The role of gender in my case tended to blend with sexual orientation, making impossible to split these two aspects. This represented a particular struggle for me as I wondered whether to come out as NB or not, finally deciding to do so only when I felt comfortable and/or when I perceived the coming out could enrich the conversation. Consequently, I started to consider also the “external aspects” - feelings, impressions, participants’ actions, etc. - rather than only the transcript of the interview as important source of data for my research. Adopting the concepts of reflexivity (Wilkinson, 1988) and positionality (England, 1994), I could rigorously evaluate how intersubjective elements influence data collection and analysis procedures (Finlay, 2002). Indeed, engaging in self-reflexivity allows to reflect upon the impact of social identities - e.g. gender, race/ethnicity, age, ability, sexuality and socio-economic class - of both researcher and researched, to take into account insights, and to embrace new research questions (Hesse-Biber, 2007). McDonald (2013) introduced the concept of queer reflexivity, by providing a theoretical and methodological approach for researchers to consider their own sexual subjectivity, including the multiple and mutable identities of the self. I identified three main identities as particularly salient with regard to the interactive process occurring between me and participants: (1) the non-binary queer identity, that is to be seen mainly as a non-heterosexual person, closer to lesbian women’s experiences as well as sensitive to gay men identity; (2) to be seen as young, and then to represent a different generation of the same community; (3) having an activist background, and therefore feeling closer to those participants with a similar history of struggles. Queer reflexivity was particularly suitable for my purpose, since allows to understand “how the acts of disclosing and hiding certain aspects of identities impact the research process, the data collected, and the power dynamics between researchers and participants” (McDonald, 2013, p. 133) and to evaluate how the social identities of my position as researcher have changed over time, both prior to and during the fieldwork. Through queer reflexivity, for instance, I recognized how my experience on the research field changed, switching from initial attempts of representing “objectivity” by wearing an academic armor during fieldwork (Lerum, 2001), to the acknowledgment of my personal involvement in conducting the research with the consequent recognition of reflexivity as a potential rigorous method, rather than a source of bias. I also used this lens to examine why strong personal connections emerged with some participants compared to others, as well as the consequences of this (lack of) connection in terms of quality of the emerging content during the interviews (Wertz, 1984). This contribution is positioned within a research methodology focused on the role of the researcher in the process of construction of his/her/their research object. Through this presentation I would like to discuss the way in which (perceived) gender identity potentially influences the research, but also how the research can impact the researcher’s identity transformation processes. Research is here conceived as a process and not just a product: “research as an ongoing, intersubjective (or more broadly, a dialogic) activity” (England, 1994, p. 244)

Le forme della vittimizzazione in adolescenza

L’obiettivo principale dello studio è esaminare la relazione tra diversi tipi di vittimizzazione tra pari, il genere e lo stato d’immigrazione in un campione non rappresentativo di studenti italiani. In particolare, questa ricerca usa i dati della survey ISTAT “Integrazione delle Seconde Generazioni”, somministrata ad un gruppo di 68,127 studenti tra i 12 ai 19 anni (49% femmine; 47% immigrati di prima e seconda generazione). Usando una regressione logistica multinomiale, è stata esaminata l’associazione tra genere, status d’immigrazione e diversi tipi (verbale, fisica, relazionale) e livelli di vittimizzazione tra pari (mai, occasionalmente, frequentemente), tenendo sotto controllo alcune variabili sociodemografiche. L’analisi ha mostrato come gli studenti immigrati e i maschi in generale hanno più probabilità di essere frequentemente vittimizzati (verbale, fisica e relazionale) Inoltre, emerge un effetto interazione tra genere e status d’immigrazione: I maschi immigrati hanno più probabilità di appartenere alla categoria dei frequentemente vittimizzati rispetto alle femmine (native e immigrate) e ai maschi nativi. L’alta preoccupazione in Italia rispetto alla tematica dell’immigrazione e la maggiore prevalenza di vittimizzazione verso i maschi nel contesto italiano può spiegare il risultato ottenuto. Risultano necessari interventi di prevenzione e strategie di intervento per migliorare la sicurezza scolastica per gli studenti immigrati

Queer generativity. A community-based resilience strategy for sexual minorities

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) older adults grew up in a highly stigmatizing historical era, which required the development of resilience strategies to survive. Queer generativity has been described as a series of behaviors typically acted by LGBTQ+ adults aimed at strengthening sexual minority identities, thus fulfilling a resilience function. Objective: The present study aimed at exploring the unique patterns of generativity practiced by 27 Italian LGB older adults (60 years and older). Methods: Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using a constructive grounded theory approach. Results: We identified three main forms of queer generativity: (1) personal, involving the reception of generativity from others, the redefinition of religious values, and adjustment of parenting styles according to one’s LGB identity; (2) relational, involving the creation of support and care networks, the provision of resources, and the pursuit of a career that supports the LGBTQ+ community; and (3) political/social, involving LGBTQ+ activism, the creation of LGBTQ+ contexts, and the transmission of knowledge to younger people. Conclusions: Queer generativity emerged as a community-based resilience strategy, as it creates the conditions for producing and transmitting tangible – e.g., LGBT+ centers, clinics, support groups, affirmative laws and policies – and intangible – the redefinition of norms, values, life goals from a minority perspective – resources. Thanks to queer generative actions, LGB older adults used their minority condition to be active and give meaning to their lives, thus thriving in the face of adversities, feeling satisfied, and peacefully facing the end of life