Brief Description
The Gender Congruence and Life Satisfaction Scale - Psychological Functioning Subscale (GCLS - Psy) is adapted from the full 38-item GCLS. The GCLS assesses change and measures improvements in gender (in)congruence, related mental well-being, and life satisfaction throughout the process of undergoing gender affirming medical interventions. The GCLS is a suitable tool to use with the transgender population to measure health-related outcomes for both clinical and research purposes. The GCLS has 7 subscales: psychological functioning, genitalia, social gender role recognition, physical and emotional intimacy, chest, other secondary sex characteristics, and life satisfaction. The GCLS-Psy focuses on actionable experiences/psychological issues that arise as a result of gender dysphoria. Respondents rate how often they experience the symptoms listed in relation to well-being (e.g., “I have suffered from anxiety”) on a scale from “Never” to “Always.”
Assessment Administration Type
Self-report
Number of questions
10
Age Range for Administration
18+
Recommended Frequency of Administration
While the GCLS is recommended to be administered every 6 months, the GCLS-Psy has been created to be administered every other week or as clinically indicated.
Summary of Scoring and Interpretations
The GCLS-Psy contains 10 questions scored on a 4-point Likert scale with values from 1 (“Always”) to 5 (“Never”). A total score is calculated by summing the item responses and ranges from 10 to 50; a higher score therefore indicates a more positive outcome (higher gender congruence, better gender-related mental well-being, and better general life satisfaction). In contrast, a lower score indicates lower gender congruence, poorer gender-related well-being, and poorer general life satisfaction.
Blueprint Adjustments
Blueprint only uses the Psychological Functioning subscale (10 questions) of the GCLS. Blueprint also has adjusted the instructions to consider the past 2 weeks versus the past 6 months such that the instrument can be used repeatedly throughout treatment.
Clinical Considerations
Estimated completion time: 2-3 minutes
The GCLS is also a great measure to review question-by-question with clients in order to have a more nuanced understanding of the effect that their gender dysphoria has on their experience.
The GCLS is the first transgender health outcome measure to be developed and validated with the transgender population and is capable of assessing important treatment outcomes for treatment seeking binary and non-binary identifying people.
Citation
Relevant Articles + Further Resources
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