Social change and relationship quality among sexual minority individuals: Does minority stress still matter?

Objective: This study examined whether positive changes in social attitudes and policies surrounding sexual minority relationships have translated to diminished deleterious effects of minority stress on relationship quality.

Background: Sexual minority emerging adults now come of age at a time of greater equality and acceptance than previous generations. Research has demonstrated consistent negative effects of stigma-theorized as minority stress-on relationship quality for sexual minority individuals.

Exploring Discrimination and Mental Health Disparities Faced By Black Sexual Minority Women Using a Minority Stress Framework.

Black sexual minority women are triply marginalized due to their race, gender, and sexual orientation. We compared three dimensions of discrimination-frequency (regularity of occurrences), scope (number of types of discriminatory acts experienced), and number of bases (number of social statuses to which discrimination was attributed)-and self-reported mental health (depressive symptoms, psychological well-being, and social well-being) between 64 Black sexual minority women and each of two groups sharing two of three marginalized statuses: (a) 67 White sexual minority women and (b) 67 Black sexual minority men. Black sexual minority women reported greater discrimination frequency, scope, and number of bases and poorer psychological and social well-being than White sexual minority women and more discrimination bases, a higher level of depressive symptoms, and poorer social well-being than Black sexual minority men.

Variations in Sexual Identity Milestones among Lesbians, Gay Men and Bisexuals.

Despite a large body of literature covering sexual identity development milestones, we know little about differences or similarities in patterns of identity development among subgroups of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) population. For this study, we assessed identity milestones for 396 LGB New Yorkers, ages 18-59. Sexual identity and disclosure milestones, were measured across gender, sexual identity, race/ethnicity, and age cohort subgroups of the LGB sample.

Substance use by adolescents of the USA National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study.

Although studies show that adolescents with same-sex parents experience homophobic discrimination, little is known about associations between stigmatization and substance use in this population. The 17-year-old offspring of lesbian parents from the largest, longest-running, longitudinal study of same-sex parented families were surveyed about substance use, experiences of homophobic stigmatization, and overall life satisfaction. Compared to matched adolescents from a national probability sample, adolescents with same-sex parents were more likely to report occasional substance use but not more likely to report heavy use.