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Stress

Is stress about being LGBTQ different from ordinary teen stress?

Goldbach JT, Schrager SM, Mamey MR · Frontiers in psychology · 2017

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

A new questionnaire measuring stress tied to being a sexual-minority teenager tracked depression, problem behaviour and drug use, overlapped only modestly with general teen stress, and explained extra variation in outcomes beyond it.

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Study at a glance

Design
Cross-sectional — One-time online/in-person survey; SMASI scores correlated with depression, suicidality, problem behaviours and substance use, and compared with a general adolescent stress measure in latent-variable models
N
N=346 · 346 gay, lesbian or bisexual adolescents aged 14-17; the optional work subscale was answered only by the roughly 30% with an employment history
Population
US sexual-minority adolescents aged 14-17, recruited in person, via social media and through respondent-driven (peer referral) sampling
Outcome
Correlations of Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory (SMASI) scores with CESD-4 depressive symptoms, 12-month suicidality and self-harm, Youth Self Report problem behaviours and substance use; overlap with the Adolescent Stress Questionnaire (ASQ)

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Key findings

Lifetime minority stress correlated with depressive symptoms (r = 0.32) and more strongly with externalizing problem behaviour (r = 0.60) and illicit drug use (r = 0.47), but not with marijuana use. Recent (30-day) minority stress was linked to suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and self-harm, whereas lifetime scores were not. Correlations between the minority-stress and general-stress measures were only small to moderate, and the two latent stress factors correlated at just 0.27. Adding minority stress to models that already contained general stress increased the variance explained for most outcomes, especially problem behaviours and tobacco, prescription drug and illicit drug use.

Methodology

The researchers surveyed 346 gay, lesbian and bisexual adolescents aged 14 to 17, recruited in person, online and by having participants refer their peers. Teens completed the new Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory (SMASI), which covers ten kinds of minority stress such as family rejection, social marginalization, internalized homonegativity and a hostile school climate, rated both for their lifetime and for the past 30 days. They also completed a general adolescent stress questionnaire and measures of depressive symptoms, suicidality, self-harm, problem behaviours and substance use. The team checked whether SMASI scores related to these outcomes (criterion validity), whether they overlapped only partly with general stress (divergent validity), and whether adding minority stress to statistical models improved prediction beyond general stress.

Limitations

All data were collected at a single time point, so the study cannot show that minority stress causes depression or drug use; distressed teens might also report more stress. Every measure was self-reported, and the sample was reached through social media and peer referral, so teens who are not out to anyone are probably under-represented. The questionnaire was validated using a 102-item candidate pool, so the final 64-item version might behave slightly differently when given on its own. Subgroups by race, ethnicity and sexual identity were too small to compare properly.

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