Skip to main content
ABCT 2023 Annual Convention Main banner
Final Program


Program Flipbook
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Back

LGBTQ+

Romantic relationship involvement moderates the association between rejection sensitivity and depressive symptoms for bi+ but not lesbian and gay adults

(PS7-B26) Romantic Relationship Involvement Moderates the Association Between Rejection Sensitivity and Depressive Symptoms for Bi+ but Not Lesbian and Gay Adults

Saturday, November 18, 2023
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM PST
Location: Regency Ballroom, Level 7
Background. Anxious expectations of rejection, also known as rejection sensitivity (RS), are positively associated with depressive symptoms among sexual minority individuals. Scholars have suggested that romantic partner support may buffer this association by serving as a coping resource for sexual minority individuals who are experiencing RS (Feinstein et al., 2020). Although romantic relationship involvement has been shown to serve as a protective factor for depressive symptoms among sexual minority individuals broadly, it is associated with worse mental health for bi+ (e.g., bisexual, pansexual, queer) individuals (Feinstein et al., 2016; Whitton et al., 2018); this is likely due to the unique relational stressors that bi+ people experience (e.g., assumptions that they are promiscuous and unfaithful in relationships; Feinstein & Dyar, 2017). As such, relationship involvement might serve as a protective factor and reduce the association between RS and depressive symptoms for lesbian/gay individuals, but not for bi+ individuals because it may function as an additional stressor. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to assess whether relationship involvement moderates the association between RS and depression, and if this differs for bi+ versus lesbian/gay individuals. Method. We used data from 586 sexual minority adults (66.7% bi+, 33.3% lesbian/gay) who participated in an online study. Moderated moderation analyses were conducted using the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2013) to test the three-way interaction between RS, romantic relationship involvement, and sexual orientation predicting depressive symptoms. Results. There was a significant three-way interaction between RS, relationship involvement, and sexual orientation (b = .37, p = .04). For lesbian/gay individuals, there was a significant association between RS and depressive symptoms (b = .34, p = < .001), but relationship involvement did not moderate the association (b = -.13, p = .34). In contrast, for bi+ individuals, relationship involvement moderated the association between RS and depressive symptoms (b = .23, p = .03). Simple slope analyses revealed a stronger association between RS and depressive symptoms for bi+ individuals who were in a relationship (b = .38, p < .001) compared to those who were not in a relationship (b = .15, p = .02). Conclusions. Given that bi+ people experience unique relational stressors (e.g., the assumption that they will be unfaithful, pressure from partners to stop identifying as bi+), being in a romantic relationship may increase the level of binegativity that bi+ people are exposed to and function as a stressor, which may exacerbate the association between RS and depressive symptoms in this population. Findings suggest that RS may be an important treatment target for sexual minority individuals, and that clinicians should assess the extent to which relationship involvement contributes to stress for bi+ individuals. Further research is needed to determine whether other aspects of romantic relationship functioning (e.g., satisfaction, commitment) impact the association between RS and depressive symptoms for sexual minority adults.