Multiple minority stress: The role of proximal and distal stress on mental health outcomes among lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color

Abstract

Existing literature suggests that both sexual and racial minorities are at a heightened risk of developing symptoms of depression and anxiety. However, there is minimal research addressing the mental health outcomes of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people of color (LGB-POC). Meyer’s minority stress theory posits that the manifestation of depression and anxiety is related to both distal and proximal stress. The present study examines the predictive value of perceived distal stress (e.g., LGBT-POC microaggressions and daily heterosexist experiences) and internalized proximal stress processes (e.g., self-stigma, identity salience, and sexual orientation rumination) for self-reported depression/anxiety symptoms among LGB-POC. A sample of 88 cisgender LGB-POC was collected online. Regression analyses suggested that proximal stressors accounted for 15% more variance in reported mental health outcomes than distal stress factors alone. Additionally, distal and proximal minority stressors together accounted for 33% of the variance in participants’ mental health outcomes. Results also indicated that bisexual/plurisexual participants reported significantly higher instances of depression and anxiety symptoms in the past month than lesbian/gay or monosexual participants. Implications regarding mental health outcomes for racial and sexual minorities and for conceptualizing the unique prejudices and stigma that LGB people of color face are discussed.

Keywords:

• LGBT people of color
• minority stress
• race
• sexual orientation

Note

Notes

1 “Plurisexual” refers to individuals who endorse identities that are not explicitly based on attraction to one sex and leave open the potential for attraction to more than one gender/sex (Galupo et al., 2014. The term “plurisexual” instead of “non-monosexual” is used throughout the article because it does not linguistically assume monosexual as the ideal conceptualization of sexuality.