Positivity as a moderator of the association between enacted stigma and mental health among lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the association between enacted stigma and adverse mental health outcomes in Israeli lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. Additionally, we explored the moderating effect of positivity, namely the inclination to perceive oneself, one's life, and one's future in a generally positive outlook, in this association. For this purpose, we surveyed 520 cisgender LGB Israelis (M_age = 33.20, SD = 8.68; 30.8% self-reported as lesbian women, 48.8% self-reported as gay men, 20.4% self-reported as bisexual individuals), and assessed enacted stigma, depressive symptoms, anxiety, negative affect, and positivity. The results of the hierarchical regressions and simple slope analyses indicated that enacted stigma was associated with higher depressive symptoms, anxiety, and negative affect. As hypothesized, positivity played a moderating role in the association between enacted stigma and adverse mental health indicators, whereby the association was weaker among participants with higher positivity scores and stronger among those with lower positivity scores. The findings contribute novel insights to the sexual minority literature within the field of mental health by unfolding the role played by positivity in mitigating the detrimental effects of enacted stigma. The results underscore that practitioners should not only be knowledgeable about the negative repercussions of enacted stigma, but they should also monitor positivity and integrate interventions aimed at enhancing positivity into their clinical work with sexual minority individuals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).