Minority Stress and Relationship Well-Being in Sexual Minorities: The Varying Role of Outness on Relationship and Sexual Satisfaction

Intimate Pride: a Tri-Nation Study on Associations between Positive Minority Identity Aspects and Relationship Quality in Sexual Minorities from German-Speaking Countries

“…Cross-sectional studies focusing on positive relationship functioning in sexual minorities yield mixed results for both variables. For age, there is evidence for negative (Sommantico et al, 2019 , 2020 ), positive (Vale & Bisconti, 2021 ), no (Pepping et al, 2019 ), or differential (Totenhagen et al, 2018 ) associations. Similarly, for relationship length, there is evidence for no (Rice et al, 2020 ; Vale & Bisconti, 2021 ) or differential (Totenhagen et al, 2018 ) associations.…”

“…For age, there is evidence for negative (Sommantico et al, 2019 , 2020 ), positive (Vale & Bisconti, 2021 ), no (Pepping et al, 2019 ), or differential (Totenhagen et al, 2018 ) associations. Similarly, for relationship length, there is evidence for no (Rice et al, 2020 ; Vale & Bisconti, 2021 ) or differential (Totenhagen et al, 2018 ) associations. This is not surprising, as a recent meta-analysis with longitudinal studies from the general (i.e., presumably mostly heterosexual) population found evidence for non-linear relations between relationship satisfaction and age and relationship length respectively (Bühler et al, 2021 ).…”

Reconciling Associations Between Minority Stress and Sexual Minority Romantic Relationship Functioning

“…In addition to internalized stigma and perceived stigma, included in both reports, Cao et al included visibility management as a third form of minority stress, a decision marking an important distinction between these two reviews. Past research on the implications of sexual orientation concealment (and identity management more broadly) for romantic relationships has revealed mixed results (Lavner, 2017;Vale and Bisconti, 2021). This is potentially because concealment is not just a stressor, but also a coping strategy by which sexual minorities can manage the stigma to which they are exposed (Talley and Bettencourt, 2011;Doyle and Molix, 2016b;Pachankis and Bränström, 2018).…”

“…A growing body of work (e.g., Molix, 2014, 2016a) has been documenting the ways in which prejudice and discrimination negatively affect social relationships, including romantic relationships, for sexual minorities. While internalized stigma is undoubtedly important to social relationships, so too is perceived stigma, which damages relationships through pathways such as decreasing self-esteem (Doyle and Molix, 2014) and increasing negative affect (Vale and Bisconti, 2021). Moreover, internalized negativity is produced over time through exposure to prejudicial and discriminatory social systems and environments (Meyer, 1995;Williamson, 2000;Szymanski et al, 2008), which can sometimes even lead to a normalization of hegemonic stigmatizing attitudes regarding gender and sexual orientation (i.e., sexism, homonegativity) among sexual minorities themselves (López-Sáez et al, 2020).…”

“…conducted a meta-analysis of the association between sexual minority stress and relationship well-being. Having published a similar meta-analysis (Doyle and Molix, 2015b), we were struck by a number of important similarities as well as critical differences in these two reviews, as other authors working on minority stress and sexual minority romantic relationship functioning have also been recently (e.g., Ballester et al, 2021;Vale and Bisconti, 2021). Here we aim to reconcile discrepant findings with regard to conceptual and methodological differences between the two reviews.…”