Multiple minority stress and LGBT community resilience among sexual minority men.

Elizabeth A. McConnell*, Patrick Janulis, Gregory Phillips, Roky Truong, Michelle Birkett

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

170 Scopus citations

Abstract

Minority stress theory has widespread empirical support in explaining health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minorities. However, less is known about how minority stress impacts multiply marginalized groups, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people of color (LGBT POC). Also, although research has documented resilience in the face of minority stress at the individual level, research that examines macrolevel processes such as community resilience is needed (Meyer, 2015). In the current study, we integrate minority stress theory and intersectionality theory to examine multiple minority stress (i.e., racial-ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood) and community resilience (i.e., connection to LGBT community) among sexual minority men of different racial-ethnic groups who use a geosocial networking application for meeting sexual partners. Results showed that Black sexual minority men reported the highest levels of racial-ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and that White sexual minority men reported the lowest levels, with Asian and Hispanic-Latino men falling in between. Consistent with minority stress theory, racial-ethnic stigma in LGBT spaces and LGBT stigma in one's neighborhood were associated with greater stress for sexual minority men of all racial-ethnic groups. However, connection to LGBT community played a more central role in mediating the relationship between stigma and stress for White than POC sexual minority men. Results suggest that minority stress and community resilience processes may differ for White and POC sexual minority men. Potential processes driving these differences and implications for minority stress theory are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1-12
Number of pages12
JournalPsychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2018

Keywords

  • community resilience
  • connection to LGBT community
  • intersectionality
  • minority stress
  • stigma

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Gender Studies
  • Psychology(all)

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