Abstract
Minority stress processes represent clear determinants of social anxiety among sexual minority populations. Yet sources of resilience to social anxiety are less explored as are stressors experienced from within sexual minority communities (i.e., intraminority stress). Based on minority stress theory and the psychological mediation framework, we hypothesized that experiences of discrimination and intraminority stress would predict proximal minority stress processes, including internalized homonegativity, sexual concealment behavior, and rejection sensitivity, as well as two resilience factors—sense of coherence and LGBTQ community connectedness—to explain social anxiety among sexual minority individuals. Self-identified cisgender sexual minority women (n = 245) and men (n = 256) residing in the Republic of Ireland completed an online survey. Results from a structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the data fit the hypothesized model well for both women and men. For both sexual minority women and men, experiences of discrimination and intraminority stress were indirectly associated with social anxiety via two paths (1) increased rejection sensitivity and (2) reduced sense of coherence. Intraminority stress was indirectly associated with social anxiety via increased concealment behavior for sexual minority men only. Experiences of discrimination were indirectly associated with social anxiety via a sequential pathway through increased proximal minority stress (i.e., concealment behavior and internalized homonegativity), and reduced LGBTQ community connectedness solely among sexual minority women. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and clinical practice with sexual minority individuals who suffer from social anxiety.
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08 March 2021
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-01956-3
Notes
For sexual minority women, high scoring outliers were winsorized for age (n = 2), ED 1 (n = 2), CB 1 (n = 4), CB 2 (n = 4), IMS Status (n = 2), and income (n = 5); a low scoring outlier was winsorized for LGBTQCC 1 (n = 1). For sexual minority men, high scoring outliers were winsorized for age (n = 1), ED 1 (n = 2), ED 2 (n = 1), ED 3 (n = 1), RS 1 (n = 2), CB 3 (n = 7), and IMS Status (n = 3).
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The original version of this article was revised: The figure given in Row 7, Column 9 in Table 2 in this article as originally published was incorrect. The correct correlation is −.43** (not .43**).
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Narrative Description for Data Transparency
This manuscript represents the second dissemination of these study data. Another manuscript using the same dataset is currently under review, and its focus is assessing differences in social anxiety levels across gender (i.e., cisgender men, cisgender women, and transgender/gender nonconforming individuals) and sexual identity (gay/lesbian, bisexual, and emerging identity) subpopulations. The below manuscript focuses on a larger (N = 604) sample as it includes transgender/gender nonconforming individuals; it does not focus on minority stress variables, intraminority stress, sense of coherence, or LGBTQ community connectedness.
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Mahon, C.P., Pachankis, J.E., Kiernan, G. et al. Risk and Protective Factors for Social Anxiety Among Sexual Minority Individuals. Arch Sex Behav 50, 1015–1032 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01845-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01845-1