Perceived Sexist Events and Psychological Distress of Sexual Minority Women of Color

Abstract

Scholars have argued that much of the sexism literature has not acknowledged diversity among women, and they have called for more attention to the intersectionality of the multiple marginalized identities of sexual minority women of color (WOC) in particular. With a sample of 182 sexual minority WOC, we examined (a) the links between perceived lifetime and recent sexist events and psychological distress and (b) the potential moderating role in these relations of womanism (a perspective of feminism that recognizes the roles of both gender and race/ethnicity in the lives of WOC). Findings from our Internet survey indicated that lifetime and recent sexism were related significantly and positively to psychological distress. Womanism was also associated positively with both forms of sexism and psychological distress. In partial support of study hypotheses, womanism moderated the relationship between perceived lifetime sexist events, but not recent sexist events, and psychological distress. More specifically, the link between lifetime sexist events and psychological distress was significant and positive for sexual minority WOC with lower levels of womanism and not significant for those with higher levels of womanism. With regard to practice implications, assessing and exploring sexist events, placing these experiences in a larger sociocultural context of oppression, connecting with the legacy of social activism of marginalized groups, and encouraging supportive networks may diminish distress.

Exploring Discrimination and Mental Health Disparities Faced By Black Sexual Minority Women Using a Minority Stress Framework

“…In the context of mental health services, cultivating providers’ awareness and clinical skills around intersecting marginalized social statuses and encouraging inquiry about clients’ experiences of discrimination will aid in the accuracy of case formulations and provision of more appropriately nuanced care (Carr et al, 2014; DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; Szymanski, 2005). Providers ought to contextualize a client's presenting problems within broader sociohistorical injustices and can draw on feminist and womanist perspectives in approaching therapy (Carr et al, 2014; DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013). Supporting a client's identification and deconstruction of stigmatizing cultural messages around race, gender, and/or sexual orientation may help to interrupt or counteract the internalization of such stigma.…”

“…A limited number of quantitative studies have examined the link between self-reported experiences of discrimination and mental health among sexual minority women of color (DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; DeBlaere et al, 2014; Selvidge, Matthews, & Bridges, 2008; Szymanski & Meyer, 2008; Wilson et al, 2011), even fewer of which have focused on Black sexual minority women in particular (Szymanski & Meyer, 2008; Wilson et al, 2011). Generally, discrimination has been measured separately by race, gender, and/or sexual orientation, and often these different forms of discrimination have been examined simultaneously in an additive model.…”

“…Generally, discrimination has been measured separately by race, gender, and/or sexual orientation, and often these different forms of discrimination have been examined simultaneously in an additive model. Of the identified studies with sexual minority women of color that have reported results of bivariate analyses, all forms of discrimination examined have been significantly related to psychological distress (i.e., racism and heterosexism, Szymanski & Meyer, 2008; sexism, DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; racism, sexism, and heterosexism, DeBlaere et al, 2014). However, when multiple forms of discrimination have been considered simultaneously along with other variables relative to mental health outcomes in sexual minority women of color, typically only one form, if any, has been found to account for unique variance (e.g., racism, when considered with heterosexism, Szymanski & Meyer, 2008; heterosexism, when considered with racism and sexism, DeBlaere et al, 2014; neither sexism nor heterosexism when considered together, Selvidge et al, 2008).…”

“…A two-stage approach to measuring discrimination frequency, in which an individual first reports discrimination experienced and subsequently makes attributions about the basis or bases for that discrimination, is an alternative one that yields a measurement of overall frequency of discrimination, irrespective of basis(es) and allows for multiple bases to be acknowledged (Shariff-Marco et al, 2011). Past studies that have explored the association between discrimination and mental health in sexual minority women of color (DeBlaere & Bertsch, 2013; DeBlaere et al, 2014; Selvidge et al, 2008) have often limited operationalization of discrimination to the frequency of 1–3 pre-specified forms of discrimination (e.g., frequency of race-based discrimination, frequency of gender-based discrimination). However, Black sexual minority women have reported experiencing discrimination based on multiple other characteristics, such as body weight, age, and income (Wilson et al, 2011).…”

Gendered Racism, Coping, Identity Centrality, and African American College Women’s Psychological Distress

“…Feminist identification also has been shown to protect women against negative effects of sexism on various mental health outcomes, including psychological distress and disordered eating (for a review, see Szymanski & Moffitt, 2012). Finally, DeBlaere and Bertsch (2013) found that womanist identification, which is inclusive of racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation identities, played a buffering role in the link between sexism and psychological distress among African American sexual minority women.…”