Exploring sexual minority adults’ pathway to suicidal ideation: A moderated serial mediation model

Abstract

Introduction:

We tested a moderated, serial mediation model of past-year suicidal ideation among sexual minority adults.

Method:

Participants (N = 198) completed an anonymous online survey.

Result:

The relation between internalized homophobia and past-year suicidal ideation can be partly explained by sexual orientation self-concept ambiguity and feelings of loneliness, especially among individuals who may be more likely to conceal their sexuality.

Conclusion:

Strategic sexual orientation disclosure, clinical advocacy for LGB+ community involvement, and support programs that facilitate positive sexual identity development may be integral to intervention strategies that seek to reduce the risk of suicide in sexual minority adults.

Keywords:

• Internalized homophobia
• sexual orientation self-concept ambiguity
• loneliness
• outness
• suicidal ideation

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Disclaimer

Other manuscripts, which utilize the full dataset and propose distinct research questions pertaining to a separate set of measures, have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

Notes

1 Although the term “internalized homophobia” has been criticized in the psychology literature for implying a clinical fear or avoidance of homosexuality, we intentionally use the term throughout the manuscript given its use in the Revised Internalized Homophobia Scale (Herek et al., 1998; Herek et al., 2009).

2 Requests for the complete list of measures should be sent to the corresponding author, Anthony M. Foster, at [email protected].

3 According to Kenny (2015), “a confidence interval can be computed for the RMSEA. Ideally, the lower value of the 90% confidence interval includes or is very near zero (or no worse than 0.05) and the upper value is not very large, i.e., less than .08.” 

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Center for Active Learning and Undergraduate Engagement (CALUE; now the Center for Transformative Undergraduate Experiences [TrUE]) at Texas Tech University. The funder was not involved in the conduct of the research.