Examining the Role of Vicarious Minority Stress within a Minority Stress Framework

Abstract

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth and young people have a significantly higher prevalence of mental health challenges than their heterosexual, cisgender peers (Jonas et al., 2022). These disparities are largely linked to disparate experiences of victimization, discrimination, and microaggressions (Meyer, 2003; Mongelli et al., 2019). While most of the literature on this association between minority stress and mental health outcomes focuses on direct experiences of minority stress such as discrimination and victimization, less attention has been given to indirect experiences of minority stress, such as reading about SGM-directed violence on the news or in social media (Hatzenbeuhler et al., 2019; Hicks, 2019; Hughto et al., 2021). Understanding the effects of these vicarious minority stressors, or instances of discrimination and stigma inflicted on someone who shares a minority identity, not in the presence of the individual and without directly targeting the individual, seems increasingly necessary. Recent studies suggest that vicarious experiences of discrimination affect SGM mental well-being across the country (Maduro et al., 2020). The current study sought to extend and test minority stress theory by assessing the impact of minority-specific vicarious stressors - in this case reading about an instance of identity-based community violence - on young peoples’ processing styles and mental health outcomes. In part 1 of the current study, I used an experimental design and quantitative text analysis to assess whether a diverse sample (N = 575) of SGM participants ages 18 - 24 (M = 22.45, SD = 2.22) exhibited differences in affect and processing style when asked to read and respond to a short passage depicting violence directed toward an individual who shares their SGM identities as opposed to those in the control, who read an identical passage with a heterosexual, cisgender subject. Results indicated a greater increase in negative affect, greater likelihood of using negative emotions and anger words, and greater use of self-reference words among participants exposed to the vicarious minority stressor. In part 2, I used structural equation modeling to assess whether self-reported past experiences of minority stress, identity affirmation, and critical consciousness predicted negative affect change and processing style among exposure group participants (N = 402), and whether these in turn predicted depressive symptoms. I found that negative affect change negatively predicted depressive symptoms and use of negative emotions words positively predicted depressive symptoms. Minority stress, identity affirmation, and critical consciousness positively predicted negative emotions words and indirectly predicted depressive symptoms via negative emotions words. Critical consciousness also positively predicted negative affect change and self-reference words, and negatively, indirectly predicted depressive symptoms via negative affect change. Implications to minority stress theory and therapeutic intervention are discussed.