2025.01 72-4 Perceived Discrimination, Resilience, and Health in Male Sexual Minorities in Taiwan: A Moderated Mediation Model
Background and Purpose
Sexual minority individuals are at a higher risk of developing several negative health outcomes, such as substance abuse, depression, and anxiety. Meyer's minority stress theory is popularly employed to understand how social stigma and constructed sexual minority communities' unfriendly social conditions affect the health of sexual minority individuals. Based on heteronomativity, sexual minority individuals' desires or identities are silenced, ignored, denied, or labelled as abnormal. Therefore, they may develop tendencies toward self-denial or self-suppression. These conditions lead to different types of minority stressors for sexual minorities. According to this theory, minority stressors include general, distal, and proximal stressors. However, Meyer suggested that sexual minority individuals develop resilience to buffer the influence of minority stressors. In summary, it is essential to investigate the relationships among perceived discrimination, resilience, internalized sexual stigma (ISS), rumination, and physical or psychological health among male sexual minority individuals.
This study examined the joint and interactive effects of perceived discrimination and resilience on ISS, brooding rumination, and physical and psychological health among male sexual minorities in Taiwan. This study also examined the role of ISS and brooding rumination as mediators between perceived discrimination and health and resilience as a moderator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and ISS, rumination, and health.
Methods
This study administered a cross-sectional online survey distributed on social networking pages and sexual minority community groups between January and June 2021. The respondents were recruited through online advertisements and an online survey. This survey assessed discrimination using the Discrimination/Harassment subscale of the Daily Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire. ISS was measured using the short version of the Measure of Internalized Sexual Stigma for Lesbians and Gay Men. Further, brooding rumination was assessed using the short version of the Ruminative Response Scale. Furthermore, resilience was measured using the Resilience Scale, and health was assessed using four questions from a questionnaire designed to determine physical and mental health problems in sexual minority communities. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to calculate the correlations between distal and proximal minority stressors, brooding rumination, resilience, and health. We used a series of path analyses to test the relationships hypothesized in the moderated mediation model to determine the significance of the direct and indirect effects.
Result
A total of 242 male sexual minority individuals aged 18–70 years (M = 34.47, SD = 9.84) participated in this survey. The average Daily Heterosexist Experiences Questionnaire score was 0.78 (out of 6). The average score on the Internalized Sexual Stigma is 2.57 (out of 5). Moreover, the average score on the Brooding Ruminative Response Scale's short version was 2,49 (out of 4). The average score on the resilience Scale was 5.17 (out of 7), and the average health score was 3.32 (out of 5), respectively. Regression analyses indicated that (1) discrimination experience, internalized sexual stigma, and rumination were negatively related to physical or psychological health, (2) resilience was positively related to physical or psychological health, (3) discrimination experience was positively related to internalized sexual stigma and rumination, and (4) resilience was negatively related to internalized sexual stigma and rumination. The mediating roles of internalized sexual stigma and rumination in the relationship between discrimination and health, as well as the moderating role of resilience, were partly significant.
Conclusions
The findings demonstrate that relationships among discrimination, resilience, internalized sexual stigma, rumination, and physical or psychological health among male sexual minorities did exist. The findings also showed that the mediators and moderators used to evaluate the effects of minority stress on health were useful. Some issues and suggestions were discussed to help mental health practitioners provide more appropriate services to male sexual minority individuals. Furthermore, culturally sensitive research in the field of sexual minority health is required.
Keywords
Brooding rumination, internalized sexual stigma, male sexual minority individuals, perceived discrimination
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