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ABSTRACT
Although the pervasiveness of heterosexism in the lives of gay and bisexual youth is well established, little is known about the strategies these youth use to cope with stigma and discrimination based on their sexual minority status. In this qualitative study, the authors present findings and implications for clinical practice based on interviews with 43 gay and bisexual young men. Respondents’ coping strategies are discussed in relation to current theory and research on coping with stigma, as well as the emerging field of emotion regulation. The narratives from the current study suggest that the emotion regulation paradigm is well suited to understanding the functions of strategies for coping with heterosexism and similar types of stigma.
Support for the original research was provided by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (R01 DA015638).
The authors wish to thank Paul Robert Appleby, PhD, Julie Carpineto, MFA, Leslie Clark, PhD, Eduardo Contreras, PhDc, Donna Lopez, MSW, Francisca Olaiz, PhDc, and Bill Sanders, PhD, for their guidance and assistance with the development of this manuscript.