If they knew I was gay... would I be accepted? Anxiety and depression in gay men who have or have not come out in the context of acceptance.

Abstract

Background: In Poland, exclusionary societal attitudes towards gay men continue to persist. The stress associated with a lack of acceptance is considered a significant component of minority stress, which, in turn, leads to anxiety and depression. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether coming out differentiates gay men in terms of the severity of anxiety and depression and to explore the factors that explain these differences.

Participants and procedure: A total of 304 participants who identified themselves as gay men (age 18-44, M = 27, SD = 6) completed four questionnaires: the State-Trait Personality Inventory to measure anxiety and depression traits; the Attitudes Towards Homosexuality Scale (with modifications to assess the participant's beliefs about how heterosexual society perceives non-heteronormative sexual minorities); the Perceived Acceptance Scale to evaluate the perceived acceptance from mothers, fathers, family, and friends; and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale to measure global self-esteem. They were also asked if they had come out. Participants were recruited using two social networking platforms: Facebook and Fellow. Hierarchical regression analysis was used.

Results: In the case of non-disclosure of sexual identity, anxiety and depression were primarily explained by the lack of acceptance from friends, the perception that others fear homosexual individuals, and low self-esteem. In men who had come out, anxiety and depression were negatively associated with acceptance from friends and both parents, positively with perceiving others as discriminatory and critical. The percentage of variance explained by each variable was significant, ranging from 32% to 42%.

Conclusions: Perceiving others' attitudes as anxious may hinder the coming-out process, but also disclosing one's orientation is associated with experiencing discrimination and criticism. In both cases it relates to the intensification of anxiety and depression. The most protective factors seem to be experiencing acceptance, especially from friends.