Avenues for Future Minority Stress and Substance Use Research among Sexual and Gender Minority Populations

ABSTRACT

Sexual and gender minority individuals (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer [LGBTQ]) experience elevated rates of minority stress and associated substance use relative to their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. Although the minority stress–substance use relationship is well documented, less is currently known regarding day-to-day minority stress and substance use risk processes. Rather than criticize existing literature, this review highlights future directions and advocates for the use of experience sampling methodology as a valuable research tool regarding real-time data capture. Greater utilization of this methodology is encouraged and expected to improve understanding of daily minority stress processes, and provide insight into real-time risk monitoring and intervention strategies.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological momentary assessment
• experience sampling
• LGBT
• minority stress
• substance use

Notes

1. Microaggressions have been defined as “brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative slights and insults toward members of oppressed groups” (Nadal, 2013, p. 36). They are “constant, continuing, and cumulative experience(s)” (p. 52) that disproportionately disadvantage minority groups (Sue, 2010).

2. Retrospective recall can be influenced by personal memory heuristics (i.e., encoding and recall of events that are more personally relevant), recency of the events recalled, salience and novelty of the event, and mood-dependent response sets (Trull & Ebner-Priemer, 2009). For instance, researchers have demonstrated over-reporting biases on retrospective recall surveys compared to real-time assessment of sexual activity among men who have sex with men (i.e., sexual activity; Horvath, Beadnell, & Bowen, 2007). It has also been shown that retrospective recall of substance use episodes is less tenable, and that individuals may have difficulty recalling motives and attributions surrounding periods of use (Armeli, Todd, & Mohr, 2005; O'Hara, Armeli & Tennen, 2014). Thus, retrospective recall methods may lack necessary sensitivity. Recent innovations in experience sampling techniques offer useful remedies for the limitations inherent to retrospective self-report methods.