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ViewAttendees 7

Symposia

LGBTQ+

Session: Enhancing Sexual Minority Wellbeing via Emotion Regulation: Research Implications and Clinical Insights from Affective and Intervention Science

2 - (SYM 17) Negative Emotion Intensity and Brooding Rumination as Mechanisms Prospectively Linking Stigma to Internalizing Psychopathology Among a Population-based Sample of Sexual Minority Young Adults

Friday, November 17, 2023
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Location: Skagit (603), Level 6

Background: Research evidence consistently finds that sexual minority young adults’ exposure to stigmatization undermines their ability to regulate emotions, which may increase the risk for internalizing psychopathology (Hatzenbuehler et al., 2009). However, the affective processes through which stigma experiences disrupt specific emotion regulation strategies remain largely unknown. To address this gap, we incorporated a behavioral task that assessed two novel affective processes—emotion intensity and emotion differentiation—which have been previously linked to emotion regulation difficulties (e.g., brooding rumination).

Methods: We used structural equation modeling to examine (1) negative emotion intensity and differentiation (separately) and (2) brooding rumination as serial mediators of longitudinal associations between perceived discrimination and anxiety and depression symptoms among a population-based study of 322 Swedish sexual minority (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual) young adults (ages 20–37). Specifically, we measured the intensity of, and differentiation among, five negative emotions (i.e., anger, disgust, fear, sadness, upset) during a standardized emotional differentiation task (Nook et al., 2018).


Results: Our findings revealed significant total effects of perceived discrimination on anxiety and depression symptoms one year later. Further, serial mediation through negative emotion intensity and brooding rumination was detected, with 30%–40% of these prospective associations indirectly explained by these affective processes. However, we found no evidence of mediation via emotion differentiation.

Conclusions: These results provide preliminary evidence that sexual minorities’ exposure to interpersonal stigma may increase the risk for internalizing symptoms by eliciting intensely negative emotional experiences that in turn contribute to brooding rumination. This novel finding highlights the importance of targeting appraisal and rumination related to negative emotions in interventions adapted for sexual minorities. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the potential utility in stigma research of incorporating objective (i.e., non self-report) indicators of affective processes that may interfere with emotion regulation.