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Major:<\/strong> Psychology honours<\/p>\n Year:<\/strong> 3<\/p>\n Home Town:<\/strong> Lopburi, Thailand<\/p>\n Preferred pronouns:\u00a0<\/strong>he\/him<\/p>\n Fun Fact:\u00a0<\/strong>I have seven cats back home<\/p>\n Could you tell us what your research question and hypothesis were\/are?<\/strong><\/p>\n My research question is the observation of the relationship between a sense of mastery and suicidality among transgender and gender non-conforming youth, especially for Black and people of colour. The sense of mastery, in this case, is about talent or valuable skill. Suicidality, as we know, is suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. So this research isIt’s the correlational relationship between knowing that you are good at something (the sense of mastery) and suicide rates, and then analyzing whether they will have a positive or negative correlation.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What sparked your interest in your research topic?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would say that this is solely from my lived experience because I’m a transgender, queer man of colour. I’m also a suicide survivor. In my community, a lot of people tend to talk about it but there is little to no research done. My community has high rates of suicide, but it is almost like, the society has established that, but they’re not doing anything. That\u2019s where I come in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How did you build your hypothesis?<\/strong><\/p>\n In the beginning, I was not going to do this research, instead, I was going to do a research on dating violence. But then, I was reading this paper on academic achievement. If people are doing well academically, they usually have better mental health quality, suicide rates will be decreased. This made me think of the research question and how if you know that you have a talent and a purpose in your life. It increases the sense of belongingness. I realised that there aren\u2019t any resources that discuss this. Talent that is outside of academia, right? They tend to\u00a0discuss academic\u00a0achievement, but they would never talk\u00a0about talent, for example, artistic talent, or sports. It made me think that if there is research about academic achievement, maybe there’s something there\u00a0about artistic\u00a0or athletic talent or something outside of that, too. That’s how I formulated the hypothesis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What made you feel like this was an important topic to research?<\/strong><\/p>\n As I mentioned\u00a0earlier, there’s not enough research. I can speak from my personal experience\u00a0that the\u00a0system tends to be here to eradicate the existence of transgender people. The system also tends to make us feel like we are disposable and that they do not care about us. The majority of the\u00a0research tends\u00a0to just focus on the majority of the population and leave certain groups of people behind. This is from my personal experience, and also from the gap of knowledge in the research, or in the academia as well, that makes me feel like this is very important because there are so many people out there whose lives are not livable, they’re facing a lot of violence, and it’s just alarming that people don’t pay attention to that. This inspired me to do this research.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Did you have to make any adjustments to your project due to COVID?\u00a0Did the transition from in-person studies to online studies disrupt your research findings?\u00a0How did you and your team overcome it?<\/strong><\/p>\n I am very fortunate as we\u00a0have run\u00a0a national survey throughout Canada since 2018. It is solely online-based, which is very lucky.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was your favourite part of the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n A lot of people might not like this part, but I like the analysis part. You\u2019re just sitting there with SPSS and creating the scale and then making the summation of the scale, you run the data sets and you see the results. You\u2019ve worked so hard on something and you finally get to see a result that will be significant. For me, this is my favourite part.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is there anything you can share with us about the results that you found? What trends\/conclusions did you observe? What was the most surprising observation from your study?<\/strong><\/p>\n We did a correlational as well as a qualitative analysis. The results showed us that there is a negative correlation between a sense of mastery and suicidality, which is significant, that’s what we want to see. We’re trying to run the mediation analysis. And to see if there is a relationship between self-esteem and our sense of mastery. For example, if you have a sense of mastery, will your self-esteem increase? But the unfortunate part about this is that we have a lot of missing data. I would not say that it’s robust. The result for a sense of mastery is that self-esteem is not significant. But I have to emphasize\u00a0that there\u00a0is a lot of missing data from the samples. From 213\u00a0data points, it left me with 50 to 90 data points which is a lot of miss data. There’s a problem with a scale that we’re trying to figure out. Now, I’m doing the qualitative analysis, for the sense of mastery, we ask them to name something you’re good at and let them elaborate on that. I will say 60% of the youth mentioned that they are good at Arts, you know, like drawing, dancing, acting, sketching, etc. It is very interesting to see. And there’s one code that I love – when we ask them to name\u00a0something that\u00a0they’re good at, they say, \u201cI am smart and strong and beautiful. I am good at everything.\u201d There is a sense of pride in themselves that they’re trying to, like\u00a0translating\u00a0to us. I feel like the qualitative analysis is very rewarding for me at this point.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I will say there is nothing that I didn’t expect. But there is this one thing that I am quite disappointed with, as I mentioned that there\u00a0is\u00a0a lot of missing data. When we ran this survey, we didn’t want to pressure the youth to answer every question. It is expected that we will\u00a0have some\u00a0missing data. But I didn’t expect that it\u00a0was going\u00a0to be this much. As much as I mentioned that I like doing the data analysis part because I want to see the results and figure out what\u00a0has\u00a0happened and whether that will support my research question. When I saw a lot of missing data, it made me uncertain if I should conclude the result\u00a0as significant\u00a0or not significant as it is not robust.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What will you be doing with your data and conclusion now? How do you plan on presenting it?<\/strong><\/p>\n Right now, I’m writing my paper. And I’m hoping to present that at PURC, which is coming up\u00a0for the UBC\u00a0PSA. I’m still looking at the results and figuring out how I am going to interpret that because when I’m doing the qualitative analysis, the purpose of doing that is actually to celebrate pride of transgender individuals.<\/p>\n I would like to emphasize the effect of the sense of mastery. \u00a0When the youth mentioned\u00a0that they’re\u00a0good at something, I want to understand what they are good at and figure out how we can endorse it. Toward the end, I would like\u00a0to, perhaps, write some recommendations based on what the youth is good at and how we can inculcate it in the school curriculum and help them move forward from there. That is something that I’m hoping to do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How\u00a0do you see the results of your study being applied in the real world?<\/strong><\/p>\n Although there is support for students in Canadian high schools in terms of academics, sports and arts, this is not intended to include transgender youth. \u00a0For example, there is a lot of \u201cdebate\u201d right now about whether transgender people belong in sports teams. \u00a0But if a transgender student mentions in school that they are good at sports, there isn\u2019t a support system in place to help them navigate through such topics and hurdles. \u00a0I feel that there\u2019s a lot that should be paid attention to – it would be a way to save a life. The system in place right now is neglecting transgender youth. As I mentioned earlier regarding my qualitative analysis, I\u2019m hoping to report about the sense of master Canadian transgender youth have and write up some recommendations about what should be done in school and the community.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you could do your study again, what would you do differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would like to ask participants more questions about, say, how the talent or skill that they mentioned is important to them. \u00a0I want to dig deep and let them voice themselves. \u00a0I didn\u2019t have any power to create the questionnaires that were used for data collection, and I find that I want more information. \u00a0I want to hear the voice of youth more about how they feel, and whether there is anything that they want to see.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What course(s) do you think were most helpful in gaining background knowledge about your research topic and, more generally, facilitating your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n My research uses an intersectional lens. \u00a0Intersectionality is a theory that was proposed by Kimberly Crenshaw, who used her experience as a black woman who often faced racialized violence. \u00a0She proposed this theory because it\u2019s essential to understand how race, gender, sexuality, socioeconomic status, disability, etc intersect in one\u2019s identity. \u00a0This combination can create a unique experience in society. \u00a0For example, I’m a queer man of colour with a disability. \u00a0In society, I’m facing transphobia, queerphobia, racism, minority stress and ableism. \u00a0An intersectional lens will ask how all of this creates\u00a0one\u00a0experience in society.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n At UBC there are courses on gender, race, sexuality and justice (GRSJ) – I took GRSJ 100 and 224, which discuss intersectionality. \u00a0There are also courses on critical studies in sexuality (CSIS) – I took CSIS 301, which is about trans studies.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In these courses, we are using an intersectional lens to understand one\u2019s lived experiences in society – how race, sexuality, gender identity, socioeconomic status impact one person. \u00a0I’m using that lens and combining it with research in psychology that I learned from courses like PSYC 217. \u00a0I’m combining these together to further our understanding of transgender people\u2019s lived experiences. Psychology research is very quantitative heavy – we love seeing numbers. \u00a0But when we study human beings, I think it is more important to listen to their voices and understand their lived experiences, not through a scale or a number, but through their narrative.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How has managing your project helped you grow, both personally and professionally?<\/strong><\/p>\n When I started in the honours program, I was so scared because of the thesis, the responsibilities, and the thought that I don’t know how to do research. I was extremely overwhelmed. But when I started working with my supervisors and took honours classes, I learned how to conduct research. I also learned how to manage time and be disciplined. \u00a0 We have all these courses we have to take and the thesis along the way, it\u2019s extremely time crunching. In the beginning, we had to do a literature review, which involved a lot of research papers to read. We have to do a lot of presentations and discuss research more – this increased my confidence, and improved my ability to read papers and deliver messages.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although the honours program can be scary, there’s nothing to be scared of. \u00a0When you get into honours, you might think that you are the only one who’s scared. \u00a0But when you start talking to other people, you realize they\u2019re scared too!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Personal Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n Tell us about how you stay organized and manage your time while doing an honours\/DS project. How do you prioritize and motivate yourself?<\/strong><\/p>\n I have to admit that at the beginning, I did not do well. \u00a0But I came to realize that I needed to have a clear schedule – knowing what I\u2019m going to do at which time. \u00a0For example, during a specific time slot on a certain day, I will dedicate myself to coursework for one of my courses, and then after that, I will not touch that anymore. \u00a0Then during another time slot, I will dedicate my time to lab work since I’m working in 2 other labs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How do you network within the psychology community, and where have you made your most valuable connections?<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019m the VP of Academics for PSA – this has been a way for me to get to know other psychology students because I run events and have my committee. \u00a0It\u2019s surprising how I got to know so many more people throughout this year. \u00a0I also found that most honours students end up taking the same courses, so after class, we would go out to study together and, before omicron, we would still have fun with each other even though we were all stressed about our theses.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What are your other interests outside of Psychology? Are you a part of any clubs or teams?<\/strong><\/p>\n I used to be a member of the Table Tennis club – I used to play table tennis competitively back in high school. I love reading. In my free time, I like to cook a lot and try out new recipes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What\u2019s your favourite book?<\/strong><\/p>\n 10 minutes 38 seconds in This Strange World\u00a0is the book that I\u2019m currently reading. \u00a0It\u2019s really interesting – it\u2019s about a female sex worker named Leila or as known as Tequila Leila in the book, living in Turkey, who was brutally murdered and left in a dumpster. This book is written as a dedication to the real story of a transgender woman sex worker who was murdered. I would say this is a great book to read.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What are your professional goals and plans for the future? What do you see yourself doing in 5 years? 10 years?<\/strong><\/p>\n I would like to be a clinical counsellor. In 5 years, I would like to be in graduate school and doing my\u00a0practicum. \u00a0Hopefully, I can continue the research I\u2019m doing right now that\u2019s dedicated to the transgender population, especially for people of colour.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n How has working on this research allowed you to develop soft skills and become a better person\/a step closer than who you want to be?<\/strong><\/p>\n As I mentioned, my research interest is to adopt an intersectional lens to get a better understanding of psychopathology amongst the transgender population. Right now, I\u2019m focusing on suicide more. I would say that this research gives me crucial exposure to whether I like research methodology and everything I\u2019m doing right now. It\u2019s also nice to get to learn about other researchers who are working on this as I work on this project – this makes me hopeful.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Major: Psychology honours Year: 3 Home Town: Lopburi, Thailand Preferred pronouns:\u00a0he\/him Fun Fact:\u00a0I have seven cats back home Could you tell us what your research question and hypothesis were\/are? My research question is the observation of the relationship between a sense of mastery and suicidality among transgender and gender non-conforming youth, especially for Black and … <\/p>\n