Minority Stressors, Rumination, and Psychological Distress in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

Abstract

This study tested the mechanisms by which social stigma contributes to psychological distress in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. A large community sample (N = 4248, M age = 29.9 years, 42.9% female, 57.1% male, 35.7% bisexual, 64.3% lesbian/gay, 9.9% non-white) was recruited using targeted and general advertisements for an online cross-sectional survey. Participants completed measures of childhood gender nonconformity, prejudice events, victimization, microaggressions, sexual orientation concealment, sexual orientation disclosure, expectations of rejection, self-stigma, rumination, and distress. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships between these variables in a model based upon minority stress theory and the integrative mediation framework with childhood gender nonconformity as the initial independent variable and distress (depression, anxiety, and well-being) as the final dependent variable. The results broadly support the hypothesized model. The final model had good fit χ 2 (37) = 440.99, p < .001, TLI = .96, CFI = .98, RMSEA = .05 [.05, .06] and explained 50.2% of the variance in psychological distress and 24.8% in rumination. Sexual orientation and gender had moderating effects on some individual paths. Results should be considered in the context of the cross-sectional nature of the data, which prevented tests of causality, and self-report measures used, which are vulnerable to bias. Findings indicate strong relationships between minority stressors and psychological distress in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals, which are partially accounted for by rumination. These results may inform the development of interventions that address the added burden of minority stress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status

“…and "People accusing you of being defensive or sensitive when talking about your gender identity or sexual orientation." This scale has good validity and internal reliability for LGB men and women (Timmins et al, 2017).…”

“…Microaggressions. Microaggressions (low-level prejudice events) were assessed using the Sexual Minority Microaggressions Scale (Timmins et al, 2017). Participants indicated how often in the past year they had experienced nine different microaggressions on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1, "Never," to 5, "All of the Time."…”

“…Active concealment. Active concealment of sexual minority status was assessed using the Gender and Sexual Minority Presentation Management Inventory (Timmins et al, 2017).…”

“…Vigilance. Vigilance for others' suspicions of own LGBT+ status and likely reactions were measured using the Vigilance for Others' Suspicions Scale (Timmins et al, 2017).…”

“…Participants rated four aspects of their well-being on an 11-point scale ranging from 0, "not at all," to 10, "completely." This scale has displayed good validity and internal reliability for LGB men and women (Timmins et al, 2017).…”