Minority stress among homosexual and bisexual individuals – from theoretical concepts to research tools: The Sexual Minority Stress Scale

Abstract

SummaryMinority stress is a relatively new concept that has emerged from the concept of stress. Its popularity among researchers who are interested in minority groups is increasing. Minority stress refers to the experiences of stigma, rejection and violence by the majority of society as experienced by the minority.The concept can be operationalised in a number of ways, for instance via a questionnaire such as the Sexual Minority Stress Scale (SMSS) presented in this paper. It concerns a clearly defined concept of minority stress and uses some stress indicators. It was translated and adapted into Polish. This paper presents the results of statistical analysis based on answers of 206 individuals describing themselves as homosexual and 62 describing themselves as bisexual.High psychometric results of the questionnaire indicate that SMSS can be used in research on minority stress in bisexual and homosexual individuals. However, further research is required to verify its usefulness in the clinical setting as a screening tool to diagnose those who may be at risk from high levels of minority stress. minority stress, bisexuality, homosexuality, Sexual Minority Stress Scale (SMSS) questionnaire BACKGROUND

Experiences of trauma, discrimination, microaggressions, and minority stress among trauma-exposed LGBT veterans: Unexpected findings and unresolved service gaps.

“…Assessment and symptom monitoring may also require adjustment to meet the needs of trauma-exposed LGBT veterans, as established measures such as the Life Events Checklist for DSM–5 (Weathers, Blake et al, 2013) and the PCL-5 (Weathers, Litz et al, 2013) are not designed to capture non-Criterion A experiences and associated reactions. We recommend incorporating additional measures in clinical care that are capable of also detecting past discrimination (see Selvidge, 2000), microaggressions (see Wright & Wegner, 2012), and minority stressors (see Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 2009; Iniewicz, Salapa, Wrona, & Marek, 2017; Mohr & Fassinger, 2000). Clinicians using evidence-based interventions for PTSD might find it useful to also assess treatment-related changes in cognition (see Vogt, Shipherd, & Resick, 2012), affect (see Kubany et al, 1996), and behaviors (see Endler & Parker, 1999) related to non-Criterion A experiences, in addition to changes in PTSD symptoms.…”

Emociones y estrategias de afrontamiento en situaciones sexuales estresantes de gays y lesbianas

“…Lo que puede estar relacionado, de acuerdo con Carrier (1976), a que ambos grupos son percibidos en su opuesto: a las lesbianas se les atribuyen características masculinas, mientras que a los gays se les atribuyen características femeninas, haciendo evidente el impacto de la cultura en los estereotipos de género (Iniewicz et al, 2017, Riggs y Treharne, 2017.…”

“…Aunado a estar más en riesgo de desarrollar problemas de salud emocional se encuentra que tanto gays, lesbianas y bisexuales perciben barreras para su atención (Smalley et al, 2015). Por un lado, el limitado acceso a los servicios de atención y, por otro, el no sentirse cómodos hablando de su orientación sexual con los profesionales que les brindan la atención (Iniewicz et al, 2017;Pollard et al, 2018), lo que conlleva a que oculten su orientación sexual y todo lo relacionado con ella, limitando las estrategias de intervención que pudieran mejorar su estado emocional, elevando las probabilidades de conductas de riesgo, como el consumo de alcohol y drogas (Kiekens et al, 2020;Logie et al, 2020), y duplicando el riesgo de suicidio (Chan, et al, 2020).…”

Is sexual identity associated with the risk of premature ejaculation?

“…Skala składa się z podskal typu Likertowskiego, które oceniają poszczególne procesy mniejszościowe. Skalę przetłumaczono i zaadaptowano do użycia w języku polskim [31]. Rzetelności (alfa Cronbacha) dla poszczególnych podskal polskiej wersji wykorzystanej w obecnym badaniu wyniosły odpowiednio: IH: 0,86; ExR: 0,87; Clm: 0,83.…”