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Effects of Minority Stress Processes on the Mental Health of Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men and Women: A Qualitative Study

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Abstract

Emerging literature on minority stress among sexual minority populations has described the negative consequences that multiple minority statuses may exert on mental health and well-being. This literature has tended to focus on individuals whose self-identifications reflect sexual minority sexual categories, such as gay or bisexual, and has explored the intersection of these definitions with ethnic, racial, and class statuses. Few such studies have explored mental health among men who actively deny a sexual minority sexual identity label while engaging in same-sex sexual behaviors. The present study used ethnographic interview data from 20 non-gay-identified bisexually behaving Dominican and Puerto Rican men in New York City. Participants described discovery of same sex sexual behavior as a threat to their intimate relationships, community affiliation, and counter to expectations of Latino masculinity. Recounting a wide range of information management strategies used to avoid open disclosure about their sexual lives, participants experienced the potential consequences of disclosure as extreme and even life threatening. Men anticipated social isolation, depression, self-injury, and suicidality as possible outcomes from disclosing sexual behavior with other men to their female romantic partners. This analysis provides direction for future research on minority stress processes and mental health service delivery among Latino men who have sex with men and women.

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Notes

  1. We use the acronym “MSMW” somewhat ambivalently in order to remain engaged in conversation with the public health literature, which has created this new term to describe the kinds of men upon which we focus here, i.e., those who engage in same-sex sexual behavior while maintaining a heterosexual public identity. For critical discussions of the emergence of these terms, see Carrillo (2001) and Muñoz-Laboy (2004).

  2. The interview protocol is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) NIMH Grant MH062246; the Center for HIV Identification, Prevention and Treatment Services (CHIPTS) NIMH Grant MH58107; the UCLA Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Grant 5P30AI028697; and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through UCLA CTSI Grant UL1TR000124. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH. The authors would like to acknowledge the collaboration of the Latino Commission on AIDS, which supported us in providing a location to conduct the interviews, Moises Cascante, who conducted nuanced interviews with these men, Diane Tan, who provided assistance with formatting and copy-editing, and Ilan H. Meyer for his feedback on early versions of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Welfare, Luskin School of Public Affairs, University of California, Los Angeles, 3250 Public Affairs Building, Box 951656, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1656, USA

    Ian W. Holloway & Lauren Willner

  2. Department of Global and Sociocultural Sciences, School of International and Public Affairs, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA

    Mark B. Padilla

  3. Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Vincent Guilamo-Ramos

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  1. Ian W. Holloway
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Correspondence to Ian W. Holloway.

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Holloway, I.W., Padilla, M.B., Willner, L. et al. Effects of Minority Stress Processes on the Mental Health of Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men and Women: A Qualitative Study. Arch Sex Behav 44, 2087–2097 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0424-x

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