Abstract
It has been well documented that taking on the provision of care for a loved one can create both hardships and uplifts throughout the caregiving journey. More recently, the intersection between one’s gender identity and sexual orientation have been examined to understand how this may facilitate caregiving responsibilities in the LGBTIQ community. Therefore, the goal of the current study is to understand if the role of informal caregiver exacerbated pre-existing hardships in the lives of transgender-identified caregivers (N = 108) compared to non-caregivers (N = 269) 50 years of age and older from the TransMetLifeSurvey. Overall, we found no support for the hypothesis that caregiving exerts an additional burden on transgender-identified informal caregivers compared to non-caregivers on health, financial strain, income, and support. Our results differ from the comparisons of caregivers and non-caregivers in non-LGBT samples, such that we did not find support that the strain of informal caregiving places transgender-identified caregivers at a greater risk in terms of their health, finances, and social support networks compared to non-caregivers. The need to understand the variability in the caregiving experience, the risk factors associated with it, and how we can best support informal caregivers in transgender and gender nonconforming populations will be discussed.