Transgender individuals are more likely to be the targets of peer victimization than their cisgender counterparts. Emerging research has demonstrated a potential negative link between peer victimization and physical activity behavior. The purpose was to examine self-reported peer victimization, physical activity behavior and attitudes regarding physical activity in transgender and cisgender adults. Eighty (33 Transgender and 47 Cisgender) adults completed validated questionnaires assessing; peer victimization, physical activity behavior, social support for physical activity and self-efficacy for physical activity. The peer victimization questionnaire asked participants about their peer interactions as children and contained the following sub-scales: Overt Victimization Subscale (OVS), Relational Subscale (RS) and Pro-social Receipt Subscale (PRS). Each of these subscales was summed individually.
Transgender individuals had a significantly (p ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.05) greater BMI, OVS and RS and lower PRS, social support for physical activity and self-efficacy for physical activity than cisgender adults. There was a trend (p ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.06) towards a difference in physical activity between groups. Self efficacy (r ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.52), social support (r ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.49), PRS (r ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.34), OVS (r ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿= -0.3) and BMI (r = -0.25) were significantly (p ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.03) correlated to physical activity. RS (r ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ -0.18) was not (p ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿ 0.1) correlated to physical activity. Transgender individuals were less physically active, received less social support, had lower self-efficacy, were more victimized and had a greater average BMI than cisgender individuals. Transgender individuals appear to be an excellent model for studying the effects of negative social interaction on physical activity behavior.