Positive Affect Is Associated With Well-Being Among Sexual and Gender Minorities and Couples

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Positive affect (PA) is a key determinant of well-being among sexual and gender minorities (SGMs). Despite a well-formed literature on PA’s beneficial impact in other contexts (e.g., HIV care) among SGMs, little work has examined PA’s interrelations with mental and relational well-being among partnered SGMs. We examined the normative trajectory of PA among partnered SGMs assigned male at birth (SGMAMABs; N = 155) embedded in a longitudinal cohort (2008–2022) and associated this with key indices of well-being (depression, negative communication, relationship quality, dyadic coping). Next, we modeled PA’s association with well-being among a subset of couples enrolled in this cohort (N = 43 dyads). Latent growth curve models suggested that PA declined over time, but that any increased PA was associated with lower depression and higher relationship quality. Actor–partner interdependence models suggested a similar health-promotive association of PA, as well as novel associations that should be the topic of future study. Collectively, these results imply that interventions designed to increase PA among SGM-AMABs should consider the dyadic context and may be successfully applied to increase SGM-AMABs’ well-being.

Original languageEnglish (US)
JournalPsychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity
DOIs
StateAccepted/In press - 2024

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Grant U01DA036939 (Principal Investigator: Brian Mustanski). Madison Shea Smith\u2019s time was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (F32DA057128; Principal Investigator: Madison Shea Smith). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. All study materials and procedures were approved by the Northwestern University Institutional Review Board. All participants provided informed consent. Materials and analysis code for this study are available upon request fromthe corresponding author. Mindful that the authors\u2019 identities can influence their approach to science (Roberts et al., 2020), the authors wish to provide the reader with information about our backgrounds. With respect to gender, when the manuscript was drafted, two authors self-identified as women and two authors as men. Three authors identify as sexual minorities. It is probable that authors\u2019 lived experiences affected how this study was conceptualized, analyzed, and interpreted. The authors have carefully considered these issues through regular meetings between the authorship team.

Keywords

  • couples
  • LGBT
  • longitudinal
  • positive affect
  • sexual and gender minority

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Gender Studies
  • General Psychology

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