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07.06.2017

Bisexual-Specific Minority Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality in Bisexual Individuals: the Mediating Role of Loneliness

Erschienen in: Prevention Science | Ausgabe 6/2017

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Abstract

Bisexual individuals are at higher risk for poor mental health outcomes compared to heterosexual as well as lesbian and gay individuals and experience minority stressors, such as discrimination, from both heterosexual and sexual minority communities. However, there is little research examining the negative effects of bisexual-specific minority stressors on bisexual individuals’ mental health as well as psychological factors that might help explain minority stressors’ deleterious effects. This research examined the effects of distal minority stressors (i.e., anti-bisexual experiences from both heterosexual as well as lesbian and gay people) and proximal stressors (i.e., internalized heterosexism and sexual orientation concealment) on psychological distress and suicidality among bisexual adults (N = 503). Building on the relational framing of the minority stress model, we also tested one relational factor (i.e., loneliness) as a mediator of the associations between distal and proximal minority stressors and poor mental health (i.e., psychological distress and suicidality). Structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the mediating effects of loneliness on the associations between minority stressors and psychological distress and suicidality. Although distal and proximal minority stressors were not associated with each other, loneliness mediated the effects of distal and proximal minority stressors on psychological distress and suicidality. The results of this study underscore the importance of targeting bisexual-specific minority stressors as well as loneliness in preventive interventions to improve the mental health of bisexual individuals.

To ascertain the effects of age, we conducted additional analyses. We first removed 40 participants who did report their age and compared them to participants who reported their age; there were no significant differences in demographic variables or the constructs in our models between these two groups. We then ran a structural model while controlling for age as well as the other aforementioned variables. This model had good fit with the data and similar results to the models presented. To maximize our sample size, we present the models not controlling for age.

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Titel: Bisexual-Specific Minority Stressors, Psychological Distress, and Suicidality in Bisexual Individuals: the Mediating Role of Loneliness
Publikationsdatum: 07.06.2017
Erschienen in: Prevention Science / Ausgabe 6/2017
Print ISSN: 1389-4986
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-6695
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-017-0804-2

Springer Medizin

Abstract

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