Hazardous Drinking, Depression, and Anxiety Among Sexual-Minority Women: Self-Medication or Impaired Functioning?

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: Sexual-minority women are at heightened risk for a number of mental health problems, including hazardous alcohol consumption, depression, and anxiety. We examined self-medication and impaired-functioning models of the associations among these variables and interpreted results within a life course framework that considered the unique social stressors experienced by sexual-minority women. Method: Data were from a sample of 384 women interviewed during the fi rst two waves of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women (CHLEW) study. Results: Covariance structure modeling revealed that (a) consistent with a self-medication process, anxiety was prospectively associated with hazardous drinking and (b) consistent with an impairedfunctioning process, hazardous drinking was prospectively associated with depression. Conclusions: Our fi ndings support a life course perspective that interprets the mental health of adult sexual-minority women as infl uenced by adverse childhood experiences, age at drinking onset, fi rst heterosexual intercourse, and fi rst sexual identity disclosure, as well as by processes associated with self-medication and impaired functioning during adulthood. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 74, 565-575, 2013)

Religiosity as a protective factor for hazardous drinking and drug use among sexual minority and heterosexual women: Findings from the National Alcohol Survey

“…The composite measure also allows for inclusion of indicators of risky drinking beyond diagnosable alcohol use disorders, which are relatively rare among women in the sample. Similar indices have been used successfully in other studies of sexual minority women (Hughes et al, 2014; Johnson et al, 2013). Dichotomized variables for each of the four indicators were used to create a score for respondents (0-4).…”

Emotional Distress, Alcohol Use, and Bidirectional Partner Violence Among Lesbian Women

“…Emotional distress and IPV can both be antecedents or consequences of hazardous drinking (Hughes, 2011; Johnson et al, 2013). Further, it is possible that emotional distress is an outcome of physical assault rather than a predictor.…”

“…The self-medication hypothesis (SMH) explains how mental health and substance problems may relate to IPV in that substance use serves as a method to reduce psychological symptoms (Khantzian, 1985). In one of the few studies to examine the association between psychological distress and alcohol use among lesbian women, anxiety, but not depression, predicted subsequent hazardous alcohol use (Johnson, Hughes, Cho, Wilsnack, Aranda, & Szalacha, 2013). …”

Ecological momentary assessment of daily discrimination experiences and nicotine, alcohol, and drug use among sexual and gender minority individuals.

“…Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations evidence disproportionately high rates of nicotine and substance use compared to the general population (Medley et al, 2016; Green & Feinstein, 2012; Lee, Griffin, & Melvin, 2009; Marshal et al, 2008). This disparity affects millions of individuals across the country; however, the fact that substance use is also linked to sexual risk-taking behavior (Friedman et al, 2014), suicide risk (Mustanski, Andrews, Herrick, Stall, & Schnarrs, 2014; Mereish, O'Cleirigh, & Bradford, 2014), and psychiatric comorbidity (Johnson et al, 2013) heightens the significance of this disparity.…”