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Panel information
Panel 17. Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

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Individuals with ethnic/racial minoritized LGB identities and have an increased risk of experiencing negative mental health outcomes, highlighted by the minority stress model (MSM; Meyer, 2003). The MSM explicates how experiences of discrimination, prejudice, and other related stressors on individuals who do not represent the dominating societal culture result in poor health outcomes. This is particularly true for the mental health regarding sexual and ethnic/racial minoritized individuals (Marshall, 2022). Individuals who experience this double jeopardy may struggle with developing an ethnic/racial and/or sexual identity, because of inadequate social experiences, which can lead to identity diffusion or lack thereof a stable self-perception contributing to these poor health outcomes (Konik & Stewart, 2004). However, limited research attended to examine unique configurations of ethnic/racial and LGB identities among sexual and ethnic/racial minoritized youth. Addressing this gap, the present study sought to classify individuals based on their affect towards their ethnic/racial (ERI) and LGB identities and then explored links to mental health.

The sample consisted of 240 participants (Mage=18.68, SD=1.88), 78.8% whom identified as bisexual, 12.9% as lesbian, and 8.3% as gay. Utilizing a median-split, participants were designed into one of four groups: High & High ERI/LGB Positive Affect (35.4%), High ERI/Low LGB Positive Affect (21.7%), Low ERI/High LGB Positive Affect (17.5%), and Low & Low ERI/LGB Positive Affect (25.4%). Subsequently, we estimated a MANOVA to examine differences in symptoms of depression and anxiety and psychological well-being and self-esteem [F(12,693)=2.723, p<.001]. Although there were no differences in symptoms of depression and anxiety, there were significant differences across psychological well-being [F(3,232)=7.233, p<.001] and self-esteem [F(3,232)=3.531, p=.016]. Specifically, as shown in Table 1, psychological well-being was highest among those who were high in both (M=4.27), followed by those with a High ERI/Low LGB Positive Affect (M=4.24), Low ERI/High LGB Positive Affect (M=3.96), and then Low & Low ERI/LGB Positive Affect (M=3.84). A similar pattern was observed for self-esteem.

Consistent with prior research on ERI (Tuthill,2021) and LGB identities (Mohr & Kendra, 2011), our findings highlighted an important association between how an individual feels about their ERI and LGB identities and positive adjustment. Although it was not surprising that those with high ERI and LGB identities were associated with the best outcomes, the high ERI/low LGB identities Positive Affect had comparable levels of positive adjustment. These findings may indicate that ERI contributes more strongly to psychological well-being and self-esteem than does the LGB identity. This may stem from greater access to ethnic/racial socialization over socialization of the LGB identity, which may make ERI more salient in terms of adjustment (Kongkaw-Oden, 2023). Surprisingly, there were no differences across symptoms of depression and anxiety. Future research should examine other dimensions of ERI and LGB identities to ascertain links between identity and internalizing problems. Overall, the present study emphasizes the importance of considering an intersectional approach to examine psychological adjustment among LGB ethnic/racial minoritized populations.

Author information

Author	Role
Cate Crowder, The University of Texas at San Antonio	Presenting author
Bethany Cruz, The University of Texas at San Antonio	Non-presenting author
Alan Meca, The University of Texas at San Antonio	Non-presenting author

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