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Testing Models of Minority Stress and Cognitive Escape in a Large Sample of Lesbian/Gay Individuals
Title
Testing Models of Minority Stress and Cognitive Escape in a Large Sample of Lesbian/Gay Individuals
Creator
Manser, Kelly
Date
2020
Description
Compared to heterosexual individuals, gay/lesbian individuals experience health and sociopolitical disparities. Health disparities include...
Show moreCompared to heterosexual individuals, gay/lesbian individuals experience health and sociopolitical disparities. Health disparities include higher prevalence of binge drinking, tobacco use, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) among gay/lesbian individuals. Sociopolitical disparities are rooted in structural stigma and include policies and norms that fail to protect, or actively discriminate against, gay/lesbian individuals. These health and sociopolitical disparities can be understood by converging two theories previously tested among gay/lesbian individuals – minority stress and cognitive escape. Minority stress theory asserts factors such as structural stigma may relate to proximal stress and negative health sequelae in targeted minority groups, while cognitive escape theory suggests escape-related behaviors like substance use may mediate links between systemic factors and individual health. This study used binary logistic regressions to test mediation models in which substance use mediated links between structural stigma and health within a large sample of gay/lesbian individuals. Structural stigma was operationalized as number of sexual orientation anti-discrimination laws, health was operationalized as presence versus absence of any CVD conditions, and substance use was operationalized as binge drinking and tobacco use. Models were tested in an aggregated sample, and also in sex/gender subsamples. In bivariate and component-path analyses, structural stigma predicted smoking frequency across samples. Stigma-binge drinking linkages were more salient among lesbian women compared to gay men. According to Sobel tests, smoking status mediated the stigma-CVD status relation for males-only and combined-sex samples. Study strengths, limitations, and implications are discussed.
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Examining Associations Between Discrimination, Social Cohesion, and Health among White and POC LGBT Chicagoans
Title
Examining Associations Between Discrimination, Social Cohesion, and Health among White and POC LGBT Chicagoans
Creator
Kannout, Lynn
Date
2022
Description
Consistent with the minority stress perspective, lesbian/gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals on average report worse health than...
Show moreConsistent with the minority stress perspective, lesbian/gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals on average report worse health than heterosexual individuals in several domains, e.g., general health, mental health, physical health, and health care access. Intersectionality-based research shows that LGBT-POC are, on average, at even greater risk for adverse health outcomes compared to their White LGBT counterparts. Discrimination and social cohesion may be two mechanisms underlying these between- and within-group disparities, given their broader relations to health and their relatively high frequency within marginalized populations. This study used data from the Chicago Department of Public Health to examine broad health differences between LGBT White and LGBT-POC individuals, and to test specific mediations models in which social cohesion mediated links between discrimination and health. LGBT-POC reported experiencing worse general health, lower access to health care, more experiences of discrimination, and lower feelings of social cohesion than did White LGBT individuals. No mediation effects emerged, however there was a direct effect of experiencing discrimination on mental health distress. Further, discrimination exposure related inversely to feelings of social cohesion. Study strengths, limitations, and implications are discussed.
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