Development and Validation of the Transgender/Nonbinary Identity Support from Partners Scale

Transgender and/or nonbinary (TNB) people often highlight romantic partners as a key source of social support related to their TNB identity. However, to date, no validated measure has existed with which to quantify TNB identity support in romantic relationships. We used a four-stage process to develop and evaluate a multidimensional measure of TNB identity support from romantic partners. First, we generated items based on prior qualitative research, then used cognitive interviews with six TNB young adults (ages 18-30 years) to refine the items. Second, we piloted 59 items in a survey of 321 TNB people (16 years and older) reporting on current or recent romantic relationships. Using those data, we performed exploratory factor analysis to identify subscales, then selected 19 items based on factor loadings, item-subscale correlations, α-if-item-deleted, discrimination parameters, and item information curves. Third, we used weekly diary survey data from 299 romantically partnered TNB young adults (ages 18-30 years) to perform confirmatory factor analysis and assess reliability at the within- and between-relationship levels. Results indicate that the 19-item Transgender/Nonbinary Identity Support from Partners Scale (TISPS) assesses five forms of TNB identity support—Facilitation [of identity exploration], Identity Validation, Celebration, Allyship, and Understanding—with a consistent factor structure and good reliability at the between-relationship level. Psychometric results were poorer for weekly within-relationship variation, suggesting that TISPS subscales have suboptimal properties for assessing short-term change. The TISPS can be used in clinical and community settings and future research on the role of social support in TNB mental health.