Sexual minorities face
greater exposure to discrimination and rejection than heterosexuals. Given
these threats, sexual minorities may engage in sexual orientation concealment
in order to avoid danger.
This social stigma and minority stress places sexual
minorities at risk for anxiety and related disorders. Given that three fourths of
anxiety disorder onset occurs before the age of 24, the current study
investigated the symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic
disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression in sexual minority
young adults relative to their heterosexual peers.
Secondarily, the study
investigated sexual orientation concealment as a predictor of anxiety and
related disorders. A sample of 157 sexual minority and 157 heterosexual young
adults matched on age and gender completed self-report measures of the
aforementioned disorders, and indicated their level of sexual orientation
concealment.
Results revealed that sexual minority young adults reported
greater symptoms relative to heterosexuals across all outcome measures. There
were no interactions between sexual minority status and gender, however, women
had higher symptoms across all disorders. Sexual minority young women appeared
to be at the most risk for clinical levels of anxiety and related disorders. In
addition, concealment of sexual orientation significantly predicted symptoms of
social phobia.
Implications are offered for the cognitive and behavioral
treatment of anxiety and related disorders in this population.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/Qq51Le
By: Cohen JM1, Blasey C2, Barr Taylor C3, Weiss BJ4, Newman MG5.
- 1PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium. Electronic address: jeffreycohen@stanford.edu.
- 2PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium.
- 3Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto University.
- 4National Center for PTSD, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford University School of Medicine.
- 5The Pennsylvania State University.
- Behav Ther. 2016 Jan;47(1):91-101. doi: 10.1016/j.beth.2015.09.006. Epub 2015 Oct 22.
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