Mental Health Disparities Among LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander Youth - A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Abstract

An ever-growing body of research has focused on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. While disparities in mental health outcomes among sexual minority groups are well documented (Su et al., 2016; Institute of Medicine, 2011), there’s relatively less empirical research on disparities in mental health among LGBTQ youth from racial/ethnic minorities. According to minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003), health disparities among minority groups arise from the excess stressors in the lives of minorities such as discrimination, prejudice, and stigma. It is thus evident from this theory that the intersectionality of race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation likely places LGBTQ people of color at a heightened risk for negative mental health outcomes. Numerous studies suggest that LGBTQ young individuals report significantly higher risk for alcohol misuse (Mohapatra et al., 2010; Hatzenbuehler et, al., 2008) than non-LGBTQ counterparts. The motivational model of alcohol use posits that emotion dysregulation is one of the primary motives for misusing alcohol (Cooper, Frone, Russell, & Mudar, 1995; Berking et al., 2001). Additionally, as common coping strategies for stress, experiential avoidance was found to be positively associated with alcohol use disorders (Levin et al., 2012), while perceived social support is negatively associated with problematic alcohol use (Groh et al., 2007; Menagi et al., 2008). In this study, we examined mental health disparities among LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander youth on emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, perceived social support, and alcohol use. This study used existing data from a large cross-sectional survey study in which a total of 579 college students were recruited from different sources including local LGBTQ NGOs, queer student organizations, and the Psychology Research Pool at the University of Washington and in Seattle metropolitan area. Students self-reported on demographics, sexual orientation, the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale – Short Form (Kaufman et al., 2015), the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire – II (Bond et al., 2001), Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (Johnson et al., 2013). Independent T-tests were employed to determine whether LGBTQ college students presented a higher level of emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, perceived social support, and alcohol use compared to non-LGBTQ students. College students who self-identified as both Asian and Pacific Islander and LGBTQ (API-LGBTQ) were found to score significantly lower than their counterpart peers, indicating a significantly higher levels of emotion dysregulation (t(387) = 2.843, p = .004), less family support (t(387) = 2.843, p = .002), higher levels of experiential avoidance (t(387) = 2.843, p = .021) compared to non-LGBTQ students among API individuals. Both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ showed similar outcome in alcohol use. Racial/ethnic, gender, and sexual minorities often suffer from poor mental health outcomes. Our findings indicate that API-LGBTQ youth were more likely to report less support from family or peers, and perhaps because of that, reported worse internal emotional experiences including emotional regulation and experiential avoidance.

Publication
American Psychological Association Convention 2020, Washington, DC

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