Profiles of Resilience and Psychosocial Outcomes among Young Black Gay and Bisexual Men

Abstract

Young Black gay/bisexual men (YBGBM) are affected by contextual stressors-namely syndemic conditions and minority stress-that threaten their health and well-being. Resilience is a process through which YBGBM achieve positive psychosocial outcomes in the face of adverse conditions. Self-efficacy, hardiness and adaptive coping, and social support may be important resilience factors for YBGBM. This study explores different profiles of these resilience factors in 228 YBGBM in New York City and compares profiles on psychological distress, mental health, and other psychosocial factors. Four profiles of resilience were identified: (a) Low self-efficacy and hardiness/adaptive coping (23.5%); (b) Low peer and parental support (21.2%); (c) High peer support, low father support (34.5%); and (d) High father and mother support, selfefficacy, and hardiness/adaptive coping (20.8%). YBGBM in profile 1 scored markedly higher on distress (d = .74) and lower on mental health functioning (d = .93) compared to men in the other profiles. Results suggest that self-efficacy and hardiness/adaptive coping may play a more important role in protecting YBGBM from risks compared to social support and should be targeted in interventions. The findings show that resilience is a multidimensional construct and support the notion that there are different patterns of resilience among YBGBM.

“It's Almost Like a Crab-in-a-Barrel Situation”: Stigma, Social Support, and Engagement in Care Among Black Men Living With HIV

“…As such, future studies should seek out new opportunities to engage out-of-care individuals and explore the role of stigma and social support among a larger sample. Additionally, social support is just one of several resilience domains (Wilson et al, 2016a), and research should continue to explore resilience as a multidimensional construct to better understand factors, in addition to social support, that may buffer against or be influenced by stigma. Finally, data were collected in 2014–2015 and there continue to be advances in biomedical science that improve engagement in care and adherence among persons living with HIV.…”

Gay Men’s Health and Identity: Social Change and the Life Course

“…This phenomenon has important implications for health and speaks to the need for health-related interventions such as HIV prevention to target men beyond the gay community (e.g., Mays, Cochran, & Zamudio, 2004; Voisin, Bird, Shiu, & Krieger, 2013). It is important to note, however, that studies that include men of color of this generation also reveal positive health and mental health outcomes, such as resilience and self-efficacy (Wilson et al, 2016), as well as positive narrative accounts of integrating their racial and sexual identities (Meyer & Ouellette, 2009). Thus there is evidence of diversity among same-sex attracted men of color in their health and identity development, and intersecting identities create variable developmental trajectories for all same-sex attracted men of color.…”

Gay Men’s Identity Development in the Twenty-First Century: Continuity and Change, Normalization and Resistance

“…Resilience in the face of adversity characterizes the lived experience of many LGBTQ people [e.g., Kwon, 2013;Meyer, 2010;Russell, 2005;Wilson et al, 2016], and we do justice to the documentation of gay men's lives when we recognize this phenomenon as social and developmental scientists. In short, the documentation of resilience is just as important as the documentation of struggle for both our science and our communication of it to young gay men and the general public, but I and other social and developmental scientists would likely be uncomfortable with the force with which Savin-Williams [2016] wants to emphasize psychological success over struggle.…”