Reducing Internalized Homonegativity: Refinement and Replication of an Online Intervention for Gay Men

Israel, Tania; Goodman, Joshua A.; Merrill, Caitlin R. S.; Lin, Yen-Jui; Kary, Krishna G.; Matsuno, Em; Choi, Andrew Young

doi:10.1080/00918369.2020.1804262

Cited by 15 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Public health strategies addressing attitudes to sexual orientation and promoting the changes of attitudes toward sexual minority among the general population may contribute to diverse affirmative cultural scripts regarding LGB individuals’ lives [ 78 , 80 ]. Although several studies have developed the programs for reducing ISS among gay and bisexual men [ 81 , 82 , 83 ], there is no study directly examining the effects of interventions addressing familial and cultural stigma on ISS among LGB individuals. Meanwhile, given the effect of gender on the associations between ISS and sexual orientation and anxiety identified in this study, intervention programs should be gender-specific.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internalized Sexual Stigma among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals in Taiwan: Its Related Factors and Association with Mental Health Problems

Lee

Chang

Tsai

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Internalized sexual stigma (ISS) is one of the major issues that can compromise the health of sexual minority populations. This quantitative study aimed to examine: (1) the relationships of individual factors (gender, age, education level, sexual orientation, and age of identification of sexual orientation) and perceived family support with ISS; and (2) the associations of ISS with mood problems and the moderating effects of gender on the associations among Taiwanese young adult lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. In total, 500 male and 500 female young adult LGB individuals aged between 20 and 30 years participated in this study. The experience of ISS, individual (e.g., gender, age, education level, sexual orientation, and age of identification of sexual orientation) and environmental factors (perceived family), mood problems (e.g., anxiety and depression) were collected. The individual and environmental factors related to ISS and the associations of ISS with mood problems were examined using multivariate linear regression analysis. The results indicated that gender, sexual orientation, age of identification of sexual orientation, and perceived family support were significantly associated with all or some dimensions of ISS in LGB individuals. Various dimensions of ISS had different relationships with anxiety and depression. Gender had moderating effects on the association between the identity dimension of ISS and sexual orientation as well as between the social discomfort dimension of ISS and anxiety. Various dimensions of ISS among LGB individuals should be routinely assessed by mental health service units. Intervention programs should be provided for LGB individuals, especially those with factors related to ISS.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Internalized Sexual Stigma among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals in Taiwan: Its Related Factors and Association with Mental Health Problems

Lee

Chang

Tsai

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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“…The eligibility criteria were being at least 18 years of age, living in the United States, and reporting either a bisexual or otherwise plurisexual self-identification, and/or attractions to more than one gender or sex. We selected bisexual people from a pool of sexual and gender minority participants using predetermined procedures, given that our intervention was specific and targeted to this population (Israel et al, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing internalized binegativity: Development and efficacy of an online intervention.

Israel

Choi

Goodman

et al. 2019

Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity

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Internalized binegativity (IB), negative attitudes and beliefs about one's own bisexuality, can develop from chronic exposure to binegative discrimination and prejudice and is associated with several negative mental health consequences. We developed and tested an online intervention following the Releasing Internalized Stigma for Empowerment (RISE) model (Lin, Israel, & Ryan, 2018) to reduce IB and to offer a novel means to access and treat bisexual people. We analyzed data from 641 bisexual adults recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) who were randomly assigned to the intervention or active control condition and asked to complete pretest and posttest measures. Four modules tailored for bisexual people, based on a review of relevant literature and expert feedback, comprised the intervention. The modules included: (a) a true/false quiz that challenged negative bisexual stereotypes with research evidence, (b) an activity where participants identified external sources of their binegative beliefs, (c) a biaffirming video and a writing exercise to express support for a bisexual person, and (d), presentation of positive aspects of being bisexual and biaffirming images. We used a posttest-only randomized controlled design with the intervention as the between-subjects factor. A series of one-way analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs), controlling for covariates of identity concealment and self-esteem, revealed that the intervention was efficacious in reducing IB at a small effect size in addition to influencing related constructs. These results offer a promising contribution to accessible and targeted intervention efforts for reducing bispecific minority stressors. Future directions include examining acceptability, feasibility, implementation, and replication issues. Public Significance StatementResults from our randomized controlled trial demonstrated that 4 online modules-comprised of activities using social psychology principles-conferred statistically significant and practically meaningful (e.g., effect sizes) changes in IB and related constructs compared with a control condition, supporting the efficacy of the intervention. Our findings demonstrate the viability of using online platforms to access and serve bisexual people, as well as the importance of considering bispecific aspects of minority stress when working with this highly vulnerable population.

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“…MTurk can be a particularly effective strategy for recruiting participants from difficult-to-reach demographic groups (Smith et al, 2015), including cisgender lesbians who have not publicly disclosed their sexual orientation or are not connected to broader LGBTQ communities. Due to the relationship between LGBTQ community involvement and IH (Puckett et al, 2015), it was important to recruit a sample from outside of LGBTQ communities; IH levels may be higher among participants recruited from MTurk than through LGBTQ community networks (Israel, Goodman, et al, 2020). Furthermore, in other studies, MTurk has more successfully reached underserved demographic groups (e.g., ethnic minorities, low-SES populations, people in rural communities) than samples recruited from university students, listservs, and LGBTQ community networks (Casler et al, 2013; Levay et al, 2016).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Releasing Internalized Stigma for Empowerment (RISE), a 30-min online intervention for same-sex attracted men based upon social psychological principles of attitude change, yielded significantly lower IH at posttest relative to a control group (Lin & Israel, 2012). Adaptations of RISE tailored for cisgender gay men (Israel, Goodman, et al, 2020), bisexual people (Israel et al, 2019), and transgender people (Israel, Matsuno et al, 2020) have also been efficacious.…”

Section: Interventions To Reduce Ihmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and efficacy of an online intervention targeting lesbian internalized homonegativity.

Israel¹,

Goodman²,

Kary³

et al. 2021

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice

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Internalized homonegativity (IH) serves as a key predictor of mental health disparities such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse in minority stress theory (Meyer, 2003). We adapted an efficacious intervention to reduce IH in sexual minority men to address the specific experiences of cisgender lesbian women. The intervention, based on principles of the Releasing Internalized Stigma for Empowerment (RISE) model (Lin et al., 2019), contains four interactive modules that were tailored toward the specific experiences of lesbians: combatting stereotypes, identifying and rejecting negative messages, reinforcing the rejection of negative messages, and enhancing affirmation. Five-hundred-thirty-three participants, recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, successfully completed covariate measures of self-esteem and identity concealment, RISE (n = 274) or a stress-management control condition (n = 259), and the Lesbian

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Reducing Internalized Homonegativity: Refinement and Replication of an Online Intervention for Gay Men

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Internalized Sexual Stigma among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals in Taiwan: Its Related Factors and Association with Mental Health Problems

Internalized Sexual Stigma among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals in Taiwan: Its Related Factors and Association with Mental Health Problems

Reducing internalized binegativity: Development and efficacy of an online intervention.

Development and efficacy of an online intervention targeting lesbian internalized homonegativity.

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