Minority stress, mental health, and mindfulness and self-compassion as moderators among young sexual minority men: A moderated structural equation analysis

Young adult sexual minority men are at heightened risk for psychological distress (i.e., depression and anxiety). Mounting evidence suggests the adverse consequences of distal stigma, and existing frameworks (the Minority Stress Theory and Psychological Mediation Framework) posit that distal minority stress may impact psychological distress through minority stress-specific processes, such as internalized homonegativity, as well as general psychological vulnerability factors, such as emotion dysregulation. There is a lack of research examining this process integrating both frameworks and understanding potential resilience factors such as mindfulness and self-compassion and where they may assert impact. Using structural equation modeling, the current study investigated the relationship between distal minority stress, measured by heterosexist discrimination, and psychological distress (i.e., depression and anxiety) through a serial indirect effect via internalized homonegativity and emotion dysregulation, while including internalized homonegativity and emotion dysregulation for their unique indirect effects separately, among young adult sexual minority men (n = 307). Further, the study explored mindfulness and self-compassion as potential moderators in subsequent models. Results indicate that two significant paths explain the association between heterosexist discrimination and psychological distress, including through internalized homonegativity and emotion dysregulation as a serial indirect path, as well as through internalized homonegativity alone. Both mindfulness and self-compassion emerged as protective factors in the “upstream” part of the model, particularly in the effect of heterosexist discrimination on internalized homonegativity. Contrary to expectation, both mindfulness and self-compassion had a strengthening impact on the positive association between internalized homonegativity and emotion dysregulation. Findings support the conceptualization of emotion dysregulation as a “downstream” effect of minority stress, as well as adapting and utilizing mindfulness and self-compassion to alleviate the impact of distal minority stress. Additional longitudinal research, particularly rigorously designed clinical trials, is needed to further evaluate such intervention programs.