The impact of work stress on sexual minority employees: Could psychological flexibility be a helpful solution?

Abstract

In the workplace, people who identify as sexual minorities experience elevated levels of incivility, discrimination, and a general lack of protection from unfair workplace practices. These difficulties can then lead to adverse physical, psychological, and social outcomes. Internalized homonegativity may contribute to these negative outcomes as well. Psychological flexibility has been associated with improved psychological and physical health. The current study is a cross-sectional assessment of adults who identify as sexual minorities (n = 312) examining the relation among work stress, well-being, psychological flexibility, and internalized homonegativity. It was hypothesized that greater work stress would be related to lower well-being, lower psychological flexibility, and higher internalized homonegativity. Further, it was hypothesized that internalized homonegativity and psychological flexibility would mediate the relation between work stress and well-being. Results indicated that psychological flexibility was a significant mediator between work stress and well-being, but internalized homonegativity was not. This suggests that psychological flexibility could be a useful tool for sexual minorities to respond effectively in difficult workplace situations. K E Y W O R D Sinternalized homonegativity, psychological flexibility, sexual minorities, work stress

Assessing the Impact of COVID-19 on Work-Related Quality of Life through the Lens of Sexual Orientation

“…Our study sought to assess the impact of the fear of COVID-19 and the negative impact of COVID-19 on WRQoL, through the lens of sexual orientation. Concerning WRQoL, previous literature has shown significant differences attributable to sexual orientation [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 ], with manifested lower levels of WRQoL in sexual minorities, and higher burnout levels [ 52 , 53 ]. Our results were similar, since significant differences were found among sexual orientations, favoring heterosexual participants with higher scores for all WRQoL variables over bisexual and gay or lesbian participants.…”

“…Work, as one of the primary and most central areas of an individual’s life, is one of the places where there has been frequent discrimination and exclusion for sexual minority people [ 12 , 57 ], through marginalization, [ 23 ] prejudice, and stigma [ 12 , 52 , 54 ]. Inevitably, an unfavorable work environment has consequences for the perception of WRQoL in sexual minorities, negatively impacting career satisfaction and general well-being [ 50 ], increasing levels of stress at work [ 51 ] and negative emotions [ 54 ]. In turn, having low WRQoL leads to more significant impairment of mental health [ 55 , 56 ], especially symptoms of anxiety and depression [ 50 , 52 , 55 , 57 ].…”

“…Other studies [ 51 , 58 ] concluded that an organizational climate of incivility, hostility, discrimination, and exclusion toward LGB individuals generates lower levels of well-being, more stress at work, and burnout, which, in turn, can lead to reduced career satisfaction [ 54 ]. These results are congruent with the data found in our research, since bisexual and gay or lesbian participants scored lower in all dimensions of WRQoL.…”

An Avatar-Led Digital Smoking Cessation Program for Sexual and Gender Minority Young Adults: Intervention Development and Results of a Single-Arm Pilot Trial

“…The Empowered, Queer, Quitting, and Living (EQQUAL) program is a cultural, linguistic, and sexual and gender minority–targeted adaptation of Flexiquit, a web-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) program designed for young adults at all stages of readiness to quit tobacco use [ 7 ]. In addition to focusing on increasing acceptance of smoking triggers and facilitating values-guided action as cessation treatment mechanisms, ACT also teaches generalizable emotion regulation skills that can increase resilience and buffer minority stress [ 8 ] among sexual and gender minority young adults. This generalizability stems from a transdiagnostic focus on building psychological flexibility—defined as willingness to experience the full range of emotional, physical, and cognitive experiences without trying to change them and to do things that are difficult in service of one’s values [ 9 , 10 ].…”

Vol 4 Issue 1

“…Tolerance is also one of the responses that frequently used by the participants. Other closely related categories that come under this theme are accepting of change and preparedness to face challenges (Singh & O'Brien, 2020).…”