An Evaluation of Resilience as a Protective Factor for Mental Health Among Sexual and Gender Minority Young People.

Abstract

Purpose: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals often face minority stressors that negatively affect their mental health, making it important to identify protective factors against the adverse psychological effects of minority stress. We investigated the potential protective effect of trait resilience in SGM individuals assigned female at birth (SGM-AFAB), who are understudied despite being at particularly high risk for mental health problems. Methods: As part of an ongoing longitudinal cohort study, 452 SGM-AFAB young people (age 16-31 years) completed measures of resilience, minority stressors (victimization, microaggressions, internalized heterosexism, and cisgenderism), and mental health (depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation) in 2017-2018. Moderating effects of resilience on associations between the minority stressors and mental health outcomes were tested using regression analyses. Results: Resilience attenuated the positive associations of microaggressions with both depression and anxiety and of internalized cisgenderism with depression (in transgender and gender-diverse participants), suggesting protective effects. Resilience did not moderate any other associations. Conclusion: These findings suggest that resilience serves as a protective factor against depressive and anxiety symptoms following experiences of microaggressions and against depressive symptoms following internalized cisgenderism among diverse SGM-AFAB individuals. These results underscore the importance of identifying factors that bolster resilience and developing intervention strategies aimed at promoting resilience within SGM-AFAB individuals, especially following experiences of microaggressions and internalized cisgenderism.