Sexual Orientation Identity in Relation to Minority Stress and Mental Health in Sexual Minority Women

Jae A. Puckett · Francisco I. Surace · Heidi M. Levitt · Sharon G. Horne

54 citations0/0 files storedLGBT Health

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LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy Gender and Feminist Studies Racial and Ethnic Identity Research

Abstract

PURPOSE: Research often erases the distinct experiences of bisexual and queer women through collapsing participants with lesbian or gay women. In addition, queer is often not included as a sexual orientation identity in research, therefore limiting the available information about how this group experiences minority stress. Given these limitations, we sought to compare groups, based on their sexual orientation identity, on experiences of minority stress and mental health to further understand between group differences that often go unaccounted for in research. METHODS: Participants (N = 249; age range 19-77; M = 38.43, SD = 12.98) completed an online survey exploring experiences of minority stress and mental health. RESULTS: We found that the group most at risk for encountering minority stressors depended on the specific stressor being examined. Queer and gay or lesbian women encountered greater victimization, discrimination, and expectations of discrimination than bisexual women. However, bisexual women had higher levels of identity concealment and internalized heterosexism than gay, lesbian, or queer women. While queer women tended to have fewer proximal stressors, they were similar to bisexual women in terms of psychological distress, with both groups scoring higher than gay or lesbian women. CONCLUSIONS: These results highlight the need to examine between group differences in future research. The experiences of minority stress appear to complexly relate to psychological distress in varying ways for different groups of women, with bisexual and queer women having the highest rates of psychological distress although they vary in the types of stressors that they encounter. In addition, the experiences of queer women were divergent from those of gay, lesbian, or bisexual women across many of the stressors, indicating that there is a need to further recognize this distinct group of women in future research.

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References

2003Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence.2004Psychological Research Online: Report of Board of Scientific Affairs' Advisory Group on the Conduct of Research on the Internet.2010Internalized homophobia and internalizing mental health problems: A meta-analytic review 2009Dimensions of Sexual Orientation and the Prevalence of Mood and Anxiety Disorders in the United States 2009Internalized homophobia and relationship quality among lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals.2011The impact of minority stress on mental health and substance use among sexual minority women.1992Hate crimes: confronting violence against lesbians and gay men 2002Sexual orientation and mental health: results from a community survey of young and middle – aged adults

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