1 - (SYM 9) Minority Stress and Posttraumatic Cognitions Fully and Serially Mediate Effect of Discrimination on Suicidal Ideation

Minoritized populations are frequently exposed to acts of discrimination, which, in turn, result in insidious, traumatic minority stress (MS). The cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) model governing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) theorizes that individuals may develop posttraumatic cognitions (PTCs) in response to traumatic distress, which, as indicated by empirical findings, may generalize to suicidal ideation. A serial mediation model was estimated to test this potential pathway; specifically, a sample of minoritized young adults (n = 217) was utilized to test whether MS and PTCs would serially mediate the relationship between acts of discrimination and suicidal ideation.

Young adults with at least one minoritized identity (77.1% person of color, 41.5% Hispanic/Latine, 47.5% non-heterosexual, 7.6% non-binary; 2.1% transgender; 29.7% with two or more minoritized identities) were recruited from a university in the southern U.S. between July 2022 and March 2023. A path model was estimated using robust maximum likelihood with the following latent variables: (1) a discrimination factor, with the following as indicators: the Everyday Discrimination Scale, Expanded Major Experiences of Discrimination Scale, Racial and Ethnic Microaggressions Scale, Heterosexist Harassment, Rejection, and Discrimination Scale, Homonegative Microaggressions Scale, and Gender Minority Stress and Resilience Measure; (2) MS, with four subscales from the Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale as indicators; (3) PTC, with three subscales from the Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory as indicators; (4) SI, with indicators of the Depressive Symptom Index-Suicidality Subscale, Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation, and a single-item measure asking participants to rate their intent to die by suicide on a scale of 0 (no intent) to 10 (definite intent) in the past week.

The path model had good fit (CFI = .959, TLI = .952, RMSEA = .056). Results showed MS significantly accounted for the association between discrimination and SI (b = .21, SE = .09, p = .02) and MS and PTCs serially accounted for the association between minority stressors and SI (b = .07, SE = .03, p = .02). Parameter estimates indicated a suppression effect; thus, a full serial mediation of MS and PTCs was supported.

The current study demonstrates the application of CBT for PTSD model in modeling SI in relation to discrimination and MS. Implications of study findings, including the adaptation of the CBT for PTSD model in addressing suicide risk in minoritized populations, will be discussed.