Minority Stress & Mental Health for Sexual Minority Adults from Religious Families: the Role of Religious Coping

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background A majority of sexual minority (SM; lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer) adults identify as religious and use religious coping strategies for dealing with life’s stressors. SM people report experiencing unique minority stressors of interpersonal rejection in family and religious settings as a product of religious doctrine that rejects same-sex relationships and attraction; however, the usefulness of religious coping strategies for handling minority stressors for improving the mental health of SM people is still unknown given mixed findings in previous studies. In addition, locating particular measures of religiously based minority stress may aid in identifying key factors affecting mental health. Method This study utilized quantitative data from a web-based survey to explore the relationships between religious coping, interpersonal religious discontent, minority stressors of family rejection and internalized stigma, and depressive symptoms of SM adults from religious families (n = 384). Results Moderation analysis demonstrated the significant interaction of religious coping and interpersonal religious discontent with minority stress factors for exacerbating the influence of greater minority stress on greater depressive symptoms when religious coping and interpersonal religious discontent were higher. In addition, those who left their religious affiliations experienced decreased minority stress and used less religious coping strategies. Conclusions Implications for family psychotherapy and future research are addressed.