Social Support and Personal Mastery as Protective Resources During Emerging Adulthood

Abstract

During emerging adulthood, lesbian and gay (LG) adults must develop an identity within the social context of heterosexist discrimination. Our specific aims were to examine differences by sexual orientation in depressive symptomatology and self-esteem and explore the role of personal resources in explaining these aspects of psychological well-being. Data were analyzed on 306 participants in emerging adulthood who completed an online survey.LG individuals experienced higher depressive symptomatology and lower self-esteem than heterosexuals, and variations in well-being were explained by personal mastery and social support. The instability which characterizes emerging adulthood is likely compounded by the developmental challenges posed by heterosexism. The formation of social relationships, coupled with personal mastery, appear to serve as protective resources during emerging adulthood.

Resilience in LGB Youths: A Systematic Review of Protection Mechanisms

“…Among the 13 studies included, 12 were published in scientific journals (Baams, Bos & Jonas, 2014;Dunn, Gonzalez, Costa, Nardi & Iantaffi, 2014;Kaysen, Kulesza, Balsam, Rhew, Blayney, Lehavot & Hughes, 2014;Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013;Ploderl, Faistauer & Fartacek, 2010;Rivers & Cowie, 2006;Sandfort, Bos, Knox & Reddy, 2015;Spencer & Patrick, 2009;Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2013;Woodford, Kulick & Atteberry, 2015;Woodford, Kulick, Sinco & Hong, 2014;Woodford, Paceley, Kulick & Hong, 2015) and one was a doctoral dissertation (Benibgui, 2011). The studies were published between 2006 and 2015 but, in one of the studies (Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013), the data were collected in 1995 and 1996.…”

“…Most studies adopt a cross-sectional design, except for one (Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013), in which the data used were collected with a one-year interval. Three studies use a sample that also includes heterosexuals with the purpose of comparison (Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013;Rivers & Cowie, 2006;Spencer & Patrick, 2009). Only one study uses a national representing sample of the country where the study was undertaken, involving 13,140 adolescents who manifested attraction for people of the same sex (Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013).…”

“…The perceived control, specifically the perceived competence to solve difficult situations, was systematic and negatively correlated with internalized homophobia and depression (Dunn et al, 2014;Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2013) and inhibited the influence of internalized homophobia, depression (Dunn et al, 2014). The other dimension of perceived control, perceived mastery, together with social support, inhibited the influence of the risk associated with the minority sexual orientation on depression and revealed to be a significant predictor of self-esteem (Spencer & Patrick, 2009).…”

“…As general personal protection mechanisms, the effects analyzed were related to self-esteem (Woodford et al, 2015a(Woodford et al, , 2014, anxious personality (Walker & LongmireAvital, 2013), religiosity (Walker & Longmire-Avital, 2013), perceived control, namely perceived competence to solve difficult situations and mastery (Dunn et al, 2014;Spencer & Patrick, 2009), general coping strategies (Kaysen et al, 2014), physical exercise (Woodford et al, 2015a) and variation in cortisol levels (Benibgui, 2011). Self-esteem was a significant predictor of depression, anxiety and physical health problems in the presence of heterosexist harassments (Woodford et al, 2015a).…”

“…The non-specific protection mechanisms studied were social support (Benibgui, 2011;Rivers & Cowie, 2006;Sandfort et al, 2015;Spencer & Patrick, 2009), relationship with the parents (Benibgui, 2011;Pearson & Wilkinson, 2013), being in a romantic relationship (Baams at al., 2014) and positive relations with the professors (Woodford et al, 2015a). In the four studies (Benibgui, 2011;Rivers & Cowie, 2006;Sandfort et al, 2015;Spencer & Patrick, 2009) that explored social support, it was observed that higher levels of support were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms (Benibgui, 2011;Rivers & Cowie, 2006;Spencer & Patrick, 2009), equaling the depression levels between LGB youth and heterosexuals (Spencer & Patrick, 2009).…”