Bisexual women’s discrimination and mental health outcomes: The roles of resilience and collective action.

Abstract

Using an additive intersectional perspective, this study examined the roles of antibisexual discrimination and sexist experiences in relation to bisexual women’s psychological distress and well-being. In addition, group- (i.e., feminist and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer [LGBTQ] collective action) and individual-level (i.e., resilience) protective factors were examined in these respective links. A total of 304 predominantly White, bisexual women participated in this study. At the bivariate level, results suggested that both antibisexual discrimination and sexist experiences were significantly related to more psychological distress. In addition, resilience and involvement in feminist and LGBTQ activities were related to more psychological well-being. When entered into a hierarchical regression analysis, sexism was uniquely positively related to psychological distress, whereas resilience and collective action were uniquely negatively related to distress. In addition, resilience moderated the sexism–distress link, such that the positive relationship became nonsignificant at high levels of resilience. In addition, resilience and collective action were uniquely positively related to psychological well-being. Results demonstrate the importance of attending to the role of discriminatory (i.e., antibisexual and sexist) experiences in bisexual women’s lives. Moreover, results suggest that resilience may be an important individual-level protective factor that may aid in bisexual women’s psychological health.

Examining Feminist and Critical Consciousness Conceptualizations of Women’s Subjective Well-Being

“…We conducted a structural equation model power analysis (Soper, 2019) to evaluate the adequacy of our sample size. We used the following parameters to conduct the analysis: desired power of .80, six latent variables, 20 items/observed indicators, α = .05, and a conservative minimum standardized path estimate of .25 (between small and medium effect; Soper, 2019) based on prior research yielding medium to large correlations between the variables of interest (e.g., Johnson et al, 2005; Moradi & Funderburk, 2006; Perez et al, 2012; Saunders & Kashubeck-West, 2006; Watson, Morgan, & Craney, 2018; Wright et al, 2010; Yoder et al, 2012). This calculation suggested that the minimum sample size of 156 for our model structure and 246 for detecting effects.…”

“…Studies focusing specifically on women’s feminist collective action and feminist personal empowerment also link these forms of empowerment with women’s well-being. For example, feminist collective action was correlated positively with well-being in a sample of predominantly White bisexual women (Watson, Morgan, & Craney, 2018). In an experimental study with racially and ethnically diverse college women, well-being increased over three days for women assigned to a feminist collective action via social media condition but not for those assigned to control conditions (Foster, 2015).…”

Strengths and coping strategies in the life narratives of sexual minority women

“…Kwon’s (2013) review of literature on resilience identified three factors that promote health and well-being in LGB populations: social support, the ability to accept and process emotions, and hope and optimism. Other reviews have also identified individual level protective factors (such as positive identity), but concurrently emphasize the importance of interpersonal factors (such as family/intimate relationship strengths and connectedness to LGBT communities) and larger community and structural contexts such as access to LGBT community resources, advocacy for affirming laws and policies, and influencing social norms and attitudes (de Lira & de Morais, 2017; Hatzenbuehler & Pachankis, 2016; Hill & Gunderson, 2015; Lyons, 2015; Meyer, 2015; Watson, Morgan, & Craney, 2018).…”

Gender Identity and Expression in LGBTQ+ Communities: Implications for the Practice of Psychology

“…Such symbolic social justice acts, although not without contention, recognize the within-group diversity among the LGBTQþ community and raise awareness of the issues affecting specific LGBTQþ communities. Last, engaging in social justice advocacy initiatives has also been found to relate to better well-being for LGBTQþ people (Velez & Moradi, 2016;Watson, Morgan, & Craney, 2018), and therefore clinicians, teachers, and advocates should recognize that advocacy has both societal and individual benefits. Levitt (2019) provides numerous examples of the ways in which LGBTQþ gender and gender expression have developed in response to the social and political conditions of the time, as well as how it has challenged rigid social norms through subversive and liberatory acts.…”