The Indirect Effect of Emotion Regulation on Minority Stress and Problematic Substance Use in Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Individuals

Abstract

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report higher levels of problematic alcohol and substance use than their heterosexual peers. This disparity is linked to the experience of LGB-specific stressors, termed minority stress. Additionally, bisexual individuals show increased rates of psychopathology, including problematic alcohol and substance use, above and beyond lesbian and gay individuals. However, not everyone experiencing minority stress reports increased rates of alcohol and substance misuse. Emotion regulation (ER), which plays a critical role in psychopathology in general, is theorized to modulate the link between minority stress and psychopathology. However, it remains largely unknown whether ER plays a role in linking instances of minority stress with substance and alcohol use outcomes. To address the gap, the current study assessed 305 LGB individuals’ instances of minority stress, ER, and substance and alcohol use outcomes. We assessed the role of ER in problematic alcohol and substance use among LGB individuals using moderated mediation, where sexual minority status was entered as the moderator, and ER difficulties was entered as the mediator. The results indicated significant indirect effects of minority stress, through ER difficulties, on both problematic alcohol and substance use. However, there was no significant interaction with sexual orientation status, suggesting that ER may be important for all LGB individuals in predicting problematic alcohol and substance use. These results highlight the important role that ER plays between instances of minority stress and substance and alcohol use in LGB individuals, suggesting that ER skills may serve as a novel target for intervention.

Sexual Victimization and Disordered Eating in Bisexual Women: A Test of Objectification Theory

“…First, given bisexual women’s experience of multiple marginalization, they may experience a broader array of discriminatory experiences that may impact their ability to attend to internal states. To this end, Rogers et al (2017) found that emotion dysregulation, a construct that conceptually overlaps with interoceptive deficits, was associated with nonsexual experiences of minority stress. Although it should be noted that emotion dysregulation and interoceptive deficits are not one in the same, they are related.…”

“…Although it should be noted that emotion dysregulation and interoceptive deficits are not one in the same, they are related. As such, the measure of emotion dysregulation (i.e., Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale; Gratz & Roemer, 2004) utilized by Rogers et al (2017) contains a subscale that assesses “lack of emotional awareness” which is core to interoceptive deficits. It is therefore possible that difficulty identifying and responding to internal emotions may be difficult for bisexual women for a number of reasons, and it may be less specific to their experiences of SV and DE.…”

Patterns of childhood maltreatment and intimate partner violence, emotion dysregulation, and mental health symptoms among lesbian, gay, and bisexual emerging adults: A three-step latent class approach

“…Studies suggest that survivors of early childhood victimization exhibit poorer emotion regulation skills than their non-maltreated counterparts (D'Andrea, Ford, Stolbach, Spinazzola, & van der Kolk, 2012). The association between exposure to victimization and emotion dysregulation has also been found among LGB adults (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Dovidio, 2009;Pachankis, Hatzenbuehler, Rendina, Safren, & Parsons, 2015;Rogers et al, 2017). Emotion regulation is a transdiagnostic factor that shapes the development of internalizing and externalizing mental health challenges (Aldao, Gee, De Los Reyes, & Seager, 2016).…”

Knowledge of Chosen Family History and Depressive Symptoms in Sexual Minority Women

“…With regard to SMs, a number of studies have shown that effective emotion regulation processes serve as a buffer against psychological distress resulting from discriminatory experiences ( Feinstein et al, 2012 ; Brewster et al, 2013 ; Velez et al, 2013 ; Szymanski et al, 2014 ; Puckett et al, 2016 ; Kaufman et al, 2017 ). Recent work with SMs has implicated emotion regulation as a key mediator between minority stress and substance misuse in adults ( Rogers et al, 2017 ) and between SM status and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adolescents ( Hatzenbuehler et al, 2008b ). Additionally, stress-related growth was linked to the use of more effective emotion regulation strategies and, thus, fewer internalizing symptoms ( Wang et al, 2016 ).…”