Despite a large body of literature addressing relationship quality and domestic violence in women's same-sex relationships, few studies have empirically examined how stress specific to living as a lesbian or bisexual woman might correlate with these relationship variables. Degree of outness, internalized homophobia, lifetime and recent experiences of discrimination, butch/femme identity, relationship quality, and lifetime and recent experiences of domestic violence were assessed in a sample of 272 predominantly European American lesbian and bisexual women. Lesbian and bisexual women were found to be comparable on most relationship variables. In bivariate analyses, minority stress variables (internalized homophobia and discrimination) were associated with lower relationship quality and both domestic violence perpetration and victimization. Outness and butch/femme identity were largely unrelated to relationship variables. Path analysis revealed that relationship quality fully mediated the relationship between internalized homophobia and recent domestic violence.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between heterosexist events and various indices of psychological distress in lesbians. In addition, it examined the potential moderating role of internalized heterosexism in the link between heterosexist events and psychological distress. Furthermore, psychometric support for the Heterosexist Harassment, Rejection, and Discrimination Scale (HHRDS) developed for this study is provided. Consistent with feminist theory and previous research, results indicated that recent perceived heterosexist harassment, rejection, and discrimination correlated positively with several indices of psychological distress. Contrary to research on gay men, internalized heterosexism did not moderate the relationship between external heterosexism and lesbians' psychological distress.KEY WORDS: lesbian; heterosexism; internalized homophobia.Feminist theorists have acknowledged that in addition to gender many women experience other sources of oppression (Brown, 1994;Worell & Remer, 2003). For example, lesbians may experience heterosexism as well as sexism in their lives. Furthermore, several feminist theories, such as Woman of color and lesbian feminisms, focus on the impact of multiple oppressions (e.g., gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation) on minority women's experiences. For example, lesbian feminism focuses extensively on challenging cultural heterosexism and the dominant culture's imposition of compulsory heterosexuality on all women (Brown, 1994;Rich, 1980). It is important for feminist researchers to investigate how diverse sources of oppression impact mental health among women in general and various subgroups of women (e.g., lesbians, women of color, 1 Dawn M. Szymanski is in the community counseling program at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Objectification theory provides an important framework for understanding, researching, and intervening to improve women’s lives in a sociocultural context that sexually objectifies the female body and equates a woman’s worth with her body’s appearance and sexual functions. The purpose of this Major Contribution is to advance theory, research, practice, and training related to the sexual objectification of women. The purpose of this article is to introduce readers to objectification theory and related research, extend objectification theory to our understanding of women’s substance use and/or abuse and immersed forms of sexual objectification via sexually objectifying environments, and provide an overview of this Major Contribution on Sexual Objectification of Women.

Stereotypes associated with Asian Americans (model minority group) are, at times, positive. Endorsement of these stereotypes (i.e., internalized racialism) might contribute to Asian's distress and their attitudes toward seeking services. The purpose of this study was to use the theory of "status-based rejection sensitivity" as a way to examine the relationship between internalized racialism (i.e., endorsement and/or internalization of positive Asian stereotypes) and psychological distress, and attitudes toward helpseeking among 291 Asian Americans. Results indicated that higher levels of endorsement of positive Asian stereotypes were related to higher levels of psychological distress and more negative attitudes toward help-seeking. No evidence was found for the moderating roles of internalized racialism in the endorsement of positive Asian stereotypes-distress/help-seeking links.

In this study, we examined how engagement and disengagement strategies for coping with discrimination might explain how gendered racism influences psychological distress among 212 African American women enrolled in an institution of higher education. Engagement strategies were coping with discrimination using resistance and education/advocacy. Disengagement coping strategies were detachment from the stressor, internalization/self-blame, and use of drugs and alcohol. In addition, we examined the potential moderating or buffering role of gendered racial identity centrality (i.e., how important being an African American woman is to one’s self-concept) in the links between gendered racism and psychological distress, and between gendered racism and strategies for coping with discrimination. Results from our online survey revealed that both coping with discrimination via detachment and internalization/self-blame uniquely mediated the gendered racism–psychological distress links. In addition, findings from the moderation analyses indicated that the direct effect of gendered racism and detachment coping and the conditional indirect effect of gendered racism on psychological distress were contingent on gendered racial identity centrality; these relations were only significant among African American women with moderate to high levels of identity centrality, suggesting that identity centrality does not play a buffering role. Our findings suggest the importance of applying an intersectionality framework to explore the experiences of gendered racism and gendered racial identity centrality in African American women’s lives. Our results also lead us to recommend future work that helps African American women reduce the use of disengagement strategies to cope with discrimination. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available to PWQ subscribers on PWQ's website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental

The purpose of this study was to examine (a) the relationship between heterosexist events and psychological distress and (b) the potential moderating roles of social support, avoidant coping, and self-esteem in the relationship between heterosexist events and psychological distress among 210 gay and bisexual men. Findings from the Web-based Internet survey revealed that many gay and bisexual men experienced heterosexist harassment, rejection, and discrimination at least once in a while during the past year and that these experiences were positively related to psychological distress. Results also indicated that self-esteem moderated the relationship between heterosexist events and psychological distress, with significant risk being associated with low self-esteem. No support was found for the moderating roles of social support and avoidant coping in the link between heterosexist events and psychological distress.

This article reports the development and psychometric properties of a new scale that measures internalized homophobia in lesbians: the Lesbian Internalized Homophobia Scale (LIHS). This 52-item measure was developed using a rational/theoretical approach of test construction and includes five subscales. Research findings, based on a sample of 303 female participants, supported the reliability and validity of the LIHS in assessing internalized homophobia in lesbians. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) persons come from diverse cultural groups with diverse racial and ethnic identities. However, most research on LGBQ persons has used primarily White samples, and most research on African Americans has used largely heterosexual samples. Thus, research has largely failed to attend to and investigate the complexity of African American LGBQ persons' experiences. This study examined the relations between multiple internalized oppressions and African American sexual minority persons' self-esteem and psychological distress. Results indicated that when examined together, internalized racism and internalized heterosexism (also known as internalized homophobia) were both significant negative predictors of self-esteem, but only internalized heterosexism was a unique positive predictor of psychological distress. The interaction of internalized racism and internalized heterosexism was not a significant predictor of self-esteem or psychological distress. Finally, the authors' findings indicate that self-esteem partially mediates the relationship between internalized heterosexism and psychological distress.