Objective: To remedy the notable gap in evidence-based treatments for sexual minority women, this study tested the efficacy of a minority-stress-focused cognitive-behavioral treatment intended to improve this population's mental and behavioral health.

Method: The intervention, EQuIP (Empowering Queer Identities in Psychotherapy), was adapted from a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment as also recently adapted for sexual minority men. Sexual minority women at risk of mental and behavioral health problems ( = 19) and expert providers with this population ( = 12) shaped the treatment's development, including by supporting its primary focus on universal and minority-stress-focused processes underlying this population's disproportionately poor mental and behavioral health. The resulting treatment was then delivered to young adult sexual minority women ( = 60; age = 25.58; 41.67% racial/ethnic minority; 43.33% transgender/nonbinary) experiencing depression/anxiety and past 90-day heavy alcohol use.

Results: Compared to waitlist ( = 30), participants randomized to immediately receive EQuIP ( = 30) experienced significantly reduced depression and anxiety ( = 0.85, 0.86, respectively); effects for alcohol use problems were smaller ( = 0.29) and marginally significant. In pre- to post-intervention pooled analyses, effect sizes for minority stress processes (mean = .25) and universal risk factors (mean = .48), through which the treatment was expected to work, were small and moderate, respectively, and in the expected direction.

Conclusions: This study provides initial support for a minority-stress-focused transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment for sexual minority women. These first results can launch exploration of other mechanisms and modalities through which to equip this population with evidence-based support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7597069PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000508DOI Listing

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