Title of study: The roles of minority stress, attitudinal and perceptual gender congruence, and trait resilience in predicting body appreciation in transgender and gender-nonconforming people

Name of researcher: Luke Tacconelli

This study examines topics related to gender-based discrimination, including experiences of physical assault and unwanted sexual contact, as well as body image. Please only continue if you will not be negatively impacted by these topics.

The study is being conducted as part of my Masters thesis in the Psychological Research Methods programme at the University of Lincoln. This research hopes to shed light on the factors involved in the more positive and protective aspects of body image in transgender and gender non-conforming people.

You are being invited to take part because you are over the age of 18, have good vision, and are able to use a computer. You may participate if you identify as cisgender, transgender or non-binary.

Participation is completely voluntary. You should only take part if you want to and choosing not to take part will not disadvantage you in anyway.

If you decide to take part you will be required to complete an online survey on your experiences of gender-based discrimination, your attitudes related to how well you feel your body aligns with your gender identity, how resilient you believe yourself to be as a person, and your appreciation for your body. You will also be asked to indicate how you perceive your current and ideal gendered body to look like using a set of sliders. This could take up to 30 minutes to complete. 

Afterwards, you will be given the option to volunteer to participate further in this study; this will involve providing an email address for the principal researcher, Luke Tacconelli, to use to organise a meeting with you either at the Sarah Swift Building at the University of Lincoln, or online through communication software such as Microsoft Teams. At this meeting, you will collaborate with the principal researcher to customise virtual avatars depicting what you perceive your current and ideal body to look like in terms of your gendered presentation. This could take up to 30 minutes to complete.

If you give your email address, it will only be used to contact you for further participation, and it will be deleted once data gathering has been completed.

I am not able to provide any expenses or payment for taking part.

There are no direct benefits of taking part in the study, but you might find the study interesting, and you may learn something about expression perception and the face in crowd effect. You will also be helping me to complete my Masters studies by taking part, and contributing towards valuable research on under-researched groups.

Reflecting on experiences of gender-based discrimination, including physical and sexual victimisation, and/or your body image may cause you some psychological distress. Please only participate in this study if you believe that this would not be the case for you.

The University of Lincoln (UoL) is the sponsor for this study, which is based in the United Kingdom. We will be using information from you in order to undertake this study and will act as the data controller for this study. This means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly.

The information we collect will be handled in confidence. No one will know you have taken part and your identity will not be linked with any of the data we record.

The data obtained from the study will be stored securely on the university OneDrive in password protected files. Only the researcher/researchers will have access to it. The personal email address you may provide in order for the principal researcher to contact you will be deleted once data has been gathered for this study.

You are free to withdraw at any point from this study, without having to give a reason, by closing your browser window or stopping the computer task and logging off the computer.

If you choose to withdraw from the study, we may keep the data that we have already obtained, in accordance with our Research Participant Privacy Notice (see below). As you have completed the study anonymously it will not be possible to remove the data provided, as I will not be able to identify you in any way.

The results of the study will be written up as a research report which will go towards my Masters qualification. This report may also be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This research is being conducted by a student at the University of Lincoln under the supervision of Dr Tracey Thornborrow.

All research conducted by the University of Lincoln is looked at by an independent group of people, called a Research Ethics Committee, to protect your interests. This study has received ethical approval (ethics reference code 2023_17066).

If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, you should ask to speak to me, and I will do my best to answer your questions. Contact details are given at the end of this information sheet. If you remain unhappy and wish to complain formally, you can do this by contacting ethics@lincoln.ac.uk.

Supervisor: Tracey Thornborrow – tthornborrow@students.lincoln.ac.uk

The University of Lincoln is the lead organisation for this study and will be the data controller for this study. This means that we are responsible for looking after your information and using it properly.

The university’s Research Participant Privacy Notice (https://ethics.lincoln.ac.uk/research-privacy-notice/) explains how we will be using information from you in order to undertake this study.

If you feel that we have let you down in relation to your information rights then please contact the Information Compliance Team by email on compliance@lincoln.ac.uk or by post at Information Compliance, Secretariat, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln, LN6 7TS.

You can also make complaints directly to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). The ICO is the independent authority upholding information rights for the UK. Their website is ico.org.uk and their telephone helpline number is 0303 123 1113.

If you have ethical concerns regarding the current research, your treatment as a participant or your involvement in the study please feel free to contact ethics@lincoln.ac.uk.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised by taking part in this study, the following organisations may be able to provide help and service:

Lifeways - Helpline number for mental health struggles: 0333 321 4881

                  Web address: https://www.lifeways.co.uk/

BEAT - Helpline number for those with eating disorders: 0808 801 0677

            Web address: https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

Be Body Positive UK - Online resource for body image: https://bebodypositive.org.uk/what-are-you-looking-for/

Mindline - Helpline number for mental health struggles: 0800 138 1692 or 01823 276 892

                  Web address: https://www.mindinsomerset.org.uk/

AKT - Online resource for non-binary people: https://www.akt.org.uk/resources/resources-for-the-non-binary-community/

Transunite - Online resource for transgender people: https://www.transunite.co.uk/

Stonewall - Online resource for transgender people: https://www.stonewall.org.uk/

Stop Hate UK - Online resource for transphobic discrimination: https://www.stophateuk.org/about-hate-crime/transgender-hate/

Fawcett Society - Online resource for misogynistic discrimination and gender equality: https://fawcettsociety.org.uk/