This thesis explores young people’s transgenderings through negotiations of language, bodies and experiences of different peer and community-based support spaces in Aotearoa New Zealand. It critically examines what ‘support’ means for young people in relation to developing subjectivities and embodiments shaped by being both young and transgender/ gender non-conforming. While these perspectives are varied, I argue that the production of community and peer-based support for those who are both young and transgender or gender non-conforming has been undergoing a period of significant change, reflecting queer and postmodern shifts which have worked to re-conceptualise the ways queer and transgender communities and peers are imagined, incorporating a greater inclusive focus on diversity. Utilising Sara Ahmed’s concept of queer phenomenology and post-structuralist theory, the thesis thinks beyond binary approaches to gender and support, to consider support and gender non-conformity through the process of ‘disorientation’. Throughout this project both ‘gender’ and ‘support’ are positioned as being subjective, embodied and discursive knowledges and actions, represented in multiple and contradictory ideas, identities and expressions of the different participants. The study utilises in-depth qualitative interviews with participants who are young people (aged 16-30 years) and support providers and developers of transgender/queer based support in Aotearoa New Zealand. Working with young people and support providers, this research provides an analysis of support development for transgender and gender non-conforming young people in Aotearoa New Zealand, arguing that all participants in support (both providers and recipients) are shaping its provision.

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<p>This dissertation consists of three chapters on economic topics related to crime and early childhood. In the first chapter, I explore the effect of a criminal justice policy on crime. The second chapter examines the relationship between gender nonconformity in childhood and life outcomes. In the third chapter, I study the relationship between access to local mental health care for children and juvenile crime.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>In my first chapter, I study the causal impact of post-release supervision on recidivism and new crime. Prior to 2011, inmates who committed lower-level offenses in North Carolina were not subject to post-release supervision. The North Carolina \textit{Justice Reinvestment Act} changed policy to require nine months of post-release supervision. Leveraging a discrete policy effective date in a regression discontinuity in time model and using administrative data from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, I explore the effects of this legislative change on criminal outcomes. Evidence indicates that post-release supervision decreases property and violent crimes, but these changes do not persist beyond the supervision period. Results suggest that supervision leads to more individuals returning to prison at a faster rate due to technical, not criminal, violations; however, requiring lower-level offenders to undergo post-release supervision is a cost-effective program.  </p> <p><br></p> <p>The second chapter of this dissertation is coauthored with Torsten Santavirta and Miguel Sarzosa. We study the role of childhood gender conformity in determining gender gaps. We present a conceptual framework that uses gender norms to explain why some women make less profitable choices than comparable men. Using unique longitudinal survey and register data, we show that gender-nonconforming girls have substantially better education and labor market outcomes than gender-conforming girls. In contrast, gender-nonconforming boys perform substantially worse at school, sort into lower-paying occupations, earn less, and have a greater incidence of mental health disorders and substance abuse during adulthood than gender-conforming boys. Our analyses suggest that such divergence develops from an early age. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In my last chapter, I explore the relationship between mental health care for children and juvenile crime. Using data with information on facilities that specifically treat children, I exploit the county-level variation in the number of mental health treatment facilities for minors in a two-way fixed-effects model to explore the relationship between access to mental health care in a given year and juvenile crime the following year. I find that outpatient and inpatient mental health facilities for children have heterogeneous effects on juvenile crime.</p>

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Marginalization and stigmatization heighten the vulnerability of sexual minorities to inequitable health outcomes. Although men who have sex with men (MSM) are at elevated risk for HIV infection in India in comparison with the general population, there is a lack of MSM-focused research—particularly regarding stigma and mental health outcomes. This dissertation aimed to explore the influence of sexual stigma, gender non-conformity stigma and HIV-related stigma on depression and life satisfaction among MSM in South India. This study used a cross-sectional survey design and was conducted with MSM (n=200) in two locations in Tamil Nadu, South India: Chennai (urban) and Kumbakonam (semi-urban). Due to multicollinearity between sexual stigma and gender non-conformity stigma, the stronger predictor of each outcome (gender non-conformity stigma) was included in regression models. Results were analyzed to identify the associations between independent (gender non-conformity stigma, HIV-related stigma), moderator (social support, resilient coping) and dependent (depression, life satisfaction) variables. Due to significant differences between locations across a substantial number of variables, block regression analyses were conducted separately for each location. Higher levels of depression were predicted by gender non-conformity stigma in both locations, and also by HIV-related stigma in Kumbakonam. Lower levels of depression in both locations were predicted by higher levels of social support and resilient coping. Higher life satisfaction was predicted by social support and resilient coping in both Chennai and Kumbakonam. Lower life satisfaction was predicted by gender non-conformity stigma and HIV-related stigma in Kumbakonam, but not in Chennai. Social support and resilient coping did not moderate the impact of stigma(s) on depression or life satisfaction in either location. The results indicate that the majority of participants experienced stigmatization based on same-sex sexual behaviour and/or gender non-conformity. Another striking finding of the study was the alarmingly high rates of depression, whereby over half of participants in each region reported moderate to severe depression scores. Practice and policy implications include the development, implementation and evaluation of: multi-level stigma reduction interventions that account for socio-environmental and contextual factors; mental health interventions that promote resiliency and build social support; and policy initiatives to advance human rights protection.

Marginalization and stigmatization heighten the vulnerability of sexual minorities to inequitable health outcomes. Although men who have sex with men (MSM) are at elevated risk for HIV infection in India in comparison with the general population, there is a lack of MSM-focused research—particularly regarding stigma and mental health outcomes. This dissertation aimed to explore the influence of sexual stigma, gender non-conformity stigma and HIV-related stigma on depression and life satisfaction among MSM in South India. This study used a cross-sectional survey design and was conducted with MSM (n=200) in two locations in Tamil Nadu, South India: Chennai (urban) and Kumbakonam (semi-urban). Due to multicollinearity between sexual stigma and gender non-conformity stigma, the stronger predictor of each outcome (gender non-conformity stigma) was included in regression models. Results were analyzed to identify the associations between independent (gender non-conformity stigma, HIV-related stigma), moderator (social support, resilient coping) and dependent (depression, life satisfaction) variables. Due to significant differences between locations across a substantial number of variables, block regression analyses were conducted separately for each location. Higher levels of depression were predicted by gender non-conformity stigma in both locations, and also by HIV-related stigma in Kumbakonam. Lower levels of depression in both locations were predicted by higher levels of social support and resilient coping. Higher life satisfaction was predicted by social support and resilient coping in both Chennai and Kumbakonam. Lower life satisfaction was predicted by gender non-conformity stigma and HIV-related stigma in Kumbakonam, but not in Chennai. Social support and resilient coping did not moderate the impact of stigma(s) on depression or life satisfaction in either location. The results indicate that the majority of participants experienced stigmatization based on same-sex sexual behaviour and/or gender non-conformity. Another striking finding of the study was the alarmingly high rates of depression, whereby over half of participants in each region reported moderate to severe depression scores. Practice and policy implications include the development, implementation and evaluation of: multi-level stigma reduction interventions that account for socio-environmental and contextual factors; mental health interventions that promote resiliency and build social support; and policy initiatives to advance human rights protection.