Revisiting minority stress theory to understand psychological distress among Czech sexual minorities

• Authors: Michal Pitoňák , Zsófia Csajbók

Abstracts

EN

Minority stress theory explains psychological vulnerability in sexual minorities; however, data is scarce in the Central and Eastern European region. Combining the minority stress model with the Psychological Mediation Framework, we tested a theoretically developed path model. Participants were 1452 (Mage = 24.9 years) Czech sexual-minority individuals (38.7% gay, 27.1% lesbian, 18.7% bisexual women). The model explained 55.5% of the variance of psychological distress in the overall sample, representing a total effect of 9.75% (p < .001) increase in measurement units by the modeled associations. Within the subsamples, the associations were similar between harassment and rejection, stigma awareness, and rejection sensitivity, as well as emotional dysregulation, rumination, and psychological distress. However, internalized homonegativity was a stronger factor of psychological well-being in gay men and lesbian women than in bisexual women. Bisexual women may have experienced less social support and more emotional dysregulation due to more concealment and rejection sensitivity, respectively. While we confirmed that the minority stress model applies to the Czech context and explained well psychological distress in sexual minorities, our data highlights notable differences between bisexual women who reported highest rates of distress compared to gay men and lesbian women.

Keywords

EN

minority stress; sexual orientation; psychological distress; mediation; rejection sensitivity

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia Psychologica
• Year: 2022
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 5-22

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Michal Pitoňák

• National Institute of Mental Health, Klecany, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000000262058369

author

Zsófia Csajbók

• Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000000258001597

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Identifiers

DOI

10.21697/sp.2022.22.1.01

Biblioteka Nauki

29433573