Perceived Stress, Loneliness, Quality of Life and Emotional Maturity: A Study of Transgenders

Background: Transgender people have managed to survive in a culture that does not accept them. Transgender people frequently experience racism, prejudice, physical harm threats, and violent acts. In order to guarantee that this group has access to basic services and combat prejudice and harassment, there is still a long way to go. Objective: The primary objective of this study was to compare and assess the perceived stress, loneliness, quality of life & emotional maturity in urban and rural area. Method: A sample of 50 transgender people, aged between 24 and 45, was taken, including 25 from rural areas and 25 from urban areas. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), UCLA Loneliness Scale, WHOQOL-BREF Scale, and Emotional Maturity Scale were the tools utilised to gather the data. Results: In results t-value is calculated and significant differences can be found among rural and urban transgenders regrading variables studied in the present paper. Conclusion: It's concluded that rural transgenders have higher stress, higher loneliness, low quality of life and higher emotional maturity compared to urban transgenders.


Introduction
For a variety of reasons, trans persons are more likely to suffer from mental health problems.Major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder are the most prevalent psychiatric diagnoses in transgender patients, according to Wanta's 2019 study.(Wanta, 2019).Unfortunately, the majority of transgender people have to survive in a culture that is cruel to them.Instead of being embraced and cherished for who they are, they frequently experience bias, prejudice, discrimination, threats of physical harm, and violent acts.Not all transgender people can rely on a support system of allies.Transgender students reported considerably higher psychosocial costs on life satisfaction, loneliness, mental health, and suicidal behaviour in one Andersson study (Anderssen, 2020).The frequency of mental health illnesses among transgender people is higher than that of the general population or cisgender people, Federica (Pinna, 2022).Transgender people do have higher rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide thoughts as compared to the general population.Transgender people have the highest rate of mental health problems among LGBTQ people.Because transgender has many various definitions, statistics on the population of transgender persons vary substantially.Some countries, including Canada, conduct censuses to collect information on transsexual • Email: editor@ijfmr.com

IJFMR230611222
Volume 5, Issue 6, November-December 2023 2 people.Globally, 0.1% to 0.6% of persons identify as transgender, which is less than 1% of the total population.

Review of literature
• According to (Agosto, 2018) the amount of substance use is significantly higher in the transgender community than it is among heterosexual individuals.The causes that led to this substance abuse in older transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) people experience isolation, social rejection, unfavourable treatment, guilt, violence, and poor physical health.

Rationale of the study
Transgender people have been chronicled ever since the beginning of time.High rates of psychological discomfort, such as sadness, anxiety, and suicide risk, are experienced by transgender people.Additionally, transgender people outside of urban regions face more discrimination than their urban counterparts.
Transgender people are excluded owing to their status because they are thought of as the most repugnant creatures in the universe.The study's contribution is crucial for comprehending the suffering and psychology of transgender people and for making others aware of the need to accept them into society at large.Trans community face a long history of being stigmatised as mentally ill, social outcasts, and sexual predators.It is indicated that rural transgenders are more prone to experience mental health issues and encounter bias, prejudice, discrimination, threats of physical damage, and violent acts.One study done on urban transgenders show they have high quality of life, (Naskar, 2018).
The key aim of this study is to compare and assess the perceived stress, loneliness, quality of life and emotional maturity in rural and urban transgenders.

3.1.Objective
1. To compare and study the perceived stress of transgenders belonging to rural and urban area.
2. To compare and assess the loneliness of transgenders belonging to rural and urban area.3. To compare and evaluate the quality of life of transgenders belonging to rural and urban area.4. To compare and assess the emotional maturity of transgenders belonging to rural and urban area.

3.2.Hypothesis
1.There will be significant difference among rural and urban transgenders on perceived stress.
2. There will be significant difference among rural and urban transgenders regarding loneliness.
3. There will be significant difference among rural and urban transgenders on quality of life.
4. There will be significant difference among rural and urban transgenders on emotional maturity.

Methodology Sample
A sample of 50 transgender people between the ages of 24 and 45 are selected, 25 of whom are rural transgenders of Haryana and 25 of whom are urban transgenders of Delhi NCR.Before administering the questionnaire, participants filled out a consent form.Data were gathered using a procedure called purposeful random sampling.

Ucla loneliness scale
Daniel Russell, a psychologist, created the UCLA loneliness scale in 1996.20 items make up the UCLA Loneliness Scale, which has a 4-point rating system.This 20-item scale is designed to evaluate a person's subjective feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

Whoqol-bref scale
The World Health Organisation (WHO) created the WHOQOL-BREF in 1995 as a condensed version of the WHOQOL-100.It consists of 26 questions across four domains on a 1-5 Likert scale.It assesses a person's quality of life in four areas: environment, social interactions, psychological health, and physical health.A five-point scale is used to grade each item, with higher scores denoting a higher quality of life.Most of the literature suggests that transgender people have lower QOL compared to the general population.(Engel, 2023).

Emotional maturity scale
It was created in 1990 by Mahesh Bhargava and Yashvir Singh.It has 48 items and is divided into five areas: emotional stability, emotional growth, social adjustment, personality integration, and independence.Its 48 items are divided into these categories.48 items in all were assessed on a Likert scale with a maximum of 5.The higher the score, the more emotionally mature the person is.• Email: editor@ijfmr.comIJFMR230611222 Volume 5, Issue 6, November-December 2023 4

Results and discussion
Hypothesis 1 : There will be no significant difference in rural and urban transgenders on Perceived stress.
Results obtained have been shown in Table 1 that indicates that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on perceived stress.The mean score of rural transgenders (M=31.04 , S. D.=2.65 ) was found higher than the urban transgenders (M= , S.D. ) between them t-ratio (t=4.02P<.01) was found significant at level 0.01.Table 1 reveals that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on perceived stress at level 0.01.This indicates that rural transgenders have perceived higher stress when compared to urban transgenders.One study done by Kaplan et.al.(2019) titled "Rural living environment predicts social anxiety in transgender and gender nonconforming individuals across Canada and the United States" showed that those living in small-town/rural environments reported significantly higher levels of social anxiety which is linked to stress compared to those living in urban environments.Hypothesis 2 : There will be no significant difference in rural and urban transgenders on Loneliness.Table 2 shows that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on loneliness.The mean score of rural transgenders (M=39.44 , S. D.=3.35 ) was found higher than the urban transgenders (M=35.04 , S.D.=2.35 ) between them t-ratio (t=5.24P<.01) was found significant at level 0.01.Table 2 reveals that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on loneliness at level 0.01.This indicates that rural transgenders have perceived higher loneliness when compared to urban transgenders.Hypothesis 3 : There will be no significant difference in rural and urban transgenders on Quality of Life.Results obtained in Table 3 shows that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on quality of life.The mean score of rural transgenders (M=71.44 , S. D.=3.30 ) was found lower than the urban transgenders (M=81.48, S.D.=2.84 ) between them t-ratio (t=11.51P<.01) was found significant at level 0.01.
As may be seen in table 3, there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on quality of life at level 0.01.This indicates that rural transgenders have perceived lower quality of life when compared to urban transgenders.
A study done by Krishnappa et.al (2021) on "Quality of life (QOL) among older persons in an urban and rural area of Bangalore, South India" showed that Mean QOL scores (SD) in the physical, psychological, social relationship and environmental domains were lower QOL irrespective of sex, education or financial dependence in rural areas compared to the urban areas.
A study done by Coswosck (2019) on "Factors associated with poor quality of life of transgender people t he TRANS population" showed worse QoL when compared with the CIS population.Living in the state's capital and having suffered episodes of prejudice were the factors remain statistically associated with the QoL among TRANS individuals.
Hypothesis 4 : There will be no significant difference in rural and urban transgenders on Emotional Maturity.
In Table 4 it is seen that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on emotional maturity.The mean score of rural transgenders (M=123.16, S. D.=3.23) was found higher than the urban transgenders (M=84.64 , S.D.=3.66 ) between them t-ratio (t=39.41**P<.01) was found significant at level 0.01.Table 4 reveals that there is significant difference between rural and urban transgenders on emotional maturity at level 0.01.This indicates that rural transgenders have perceived higher emotional maturity when compared to urban transgenders.

Conclusion
Present research shows that there are differences among perceived stress, loneliness, quality of life and emotional maturity among rural and urban transgenders.So concluding our result we can say that: 1. Perceived stress in rural transgenders was found higher when compared to urban transgenders may be because they are unable to control their personal problems and not able to overcome the difficulties piling up with them.2. Rural transgenders seems to have lack of social relations, lack of companionship, feeling of isolation from others, difficulty in making friends and feeling excluded from others leads them to loneliness.
3. Quality of life in rural transgenders was lower when compared to urban transgenders.It seems their low quality of life stems from their poor physical and psychological health.They are somewhere incapable of handling their social relationships and environmental problems that significantly lower their standards of living.4. High emotional maturity in rural transgenders somehow indicates their capacity for resilience and increasing control which results from having emotional stability and independence.Also they are able to balance the needs that are hindered by the environmental obstacles.

Implications
Transgender people have experienced discrimination, harassment, and hatred for a very long time especially rural transgenders.Rural transgenders encounter more inequalities compared with their urban equivalents (Ralston, 2022).They are abandoned by their relatives at a very young age, which renders them defense less.They are forced to dance in public while not wearing any clothes.Although with the gradual increase in public understanding and acceptance of transgender people, society must also ensure that this population has access to adequate services and combating the prejudice, harassment, and social stigmatisation that they experience, (Gandy, 2021).Therefore, government needs to make specific programmes which make sure that transgender people residing in rural areas have a decreased stress, loneliness and a higher quality of life.They must feel personally integrated in the society by making transgender-specific social welfare projects that would aid in transforming the public's negative opinion towards transgender groups and disseminating accurate information about them.The institutions and procedures utilised in the delivery of healthcare must change, as must the attitudes of the government, the general public, and healthcare professionals.Even though some provisions have been made by the government and the law on paper, they still need to be implemented on a regular basis.They have something to offer our society or even our nation, just like we do.

Appendix
In Manipur, fifty transgender people aged 18 and older were studied by Sameeta, et al. (2018) and the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics and subjective well-being was discovered.The findings indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between subjective well-being and socio-demographic factors such age, educational attainment, occupation, place of residence, and family perspective.• A study was done on a sample consisting of 60 transgenders (30 'Gurus' and 30 'Chellas' ) belonging to Varanasi (U.P.) and Chhapra (Bihar) on the age range 18-55 years of the respondents by (Pandey, 2018).The results showed that (a) 'Guru' (Leaders) were perceived more discrimination and less harassment in comparison to their 'Chellas' (Students).(b) 'Guru' (Leaders) have perceived poor mental health (more negative affect, anxiety, depression and stress) and quality of life (less life satisfaction, and but more social acceptance) in comparison to their 'Chellas' (Students).• Ralston, et al. (2022) studied the mental health and marginalization stress in transgender and gender diverse adults: Differences between urban and non-urban experiences.The findings indicate that transgender and gender diverse (TGD) individuals face high rates of psychological distress, including depression, anxiety, and suicide risk.Further, TGD individuals living outside of urban areas experience additional disparities compared to their urban counterparts.

Table 4 : Mean , S.D. and t-ratio between rural and urban transgenders on Emotional Maturity
PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE, by Cohen, Kamarck and Mermelstein.UCLA LONELINESS SCALE, by Daniel Russell.WHOQOL-BREF, by World Health Organisation (WHO).EMOTIONAL MATURITY SCALE, by Yashvir Singh and Mahesh Bhargava.9.AcknowledgementDuring the course of writing this journal, we have received help, encouragement and assistance from my friends and family members.We would like to thank all the people who helped me in completing my work.I am privileged to extend my deepest gratitude This article could come in frame I would like to thank my friends and family for constant support, motivation, help and blessings without this the work wouldn't have been a success.10. References 1. Agosto S, Reitz K, Ducheny K, Moaton T. Substance Use and Recovery in the Transgender and Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) Older Adult Community, Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Health and Aging, 2018, 97-112.DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-95031-0_6