2 - (SYM 81) Child Sexual Abuse and Psychological Distress Among Bi+ Young Adults: A Moderated Mediation Model

Background:

            Bi+ individuals (i.e., those attracted to more than one gender) report greater rates of childhood maltreatment (e.g., child sexual abuse or CSA) compared to other sexual minorities (Corliss et al., 2002). Emotion dysregulation is one proposed mechanism linking maltreatment and distress (Messman-Moore & Bhuptani, 2017). It is unclear whether factors unique to bi+ individuals also contribute to adjustment problems. The Psychological Mediation Framework (Hatzenbuehler, 2009) purports that sexual minority stressors (e.g., discrimination) contribute to greater emotional dysregulation and distress. This may be particularly true among those who are “out” as bi+ to a greater extent. This study examined whether: a) emotion dysregulation mediated CSA-distress association, and b) outness moderated the association among bi+ young adults.



Method:

            Bi+ young adults ages 18-25 (n = 239; 80.1% women, 63.5% White) recruited from a psychology department participant pool and Qualtrics Panel.  They completed an online survey that included measures of CSA (Bernstein et al., 1994), emotion dysregulation (Preece et al., 2018), distress (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), and outness (Wilkerson et al., 2016).
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Results:

Moderated mediation analysis tested the conditional indirect effect of outness on the association between CSA and distress via emotion dysregulation. The PROCESS macro, model 7, (Hayes, 2022) in SPSS Version 28 was used to test the significance of the indirect (i.e., mediated) effect moderated by outness. The index of moderated mediation was significant, b = 8.81, SE = 2.91, 95% CI [3.49, 14.90]. The indirect effect of CSA history on distress via emotion dysregulation was significant at mean, b = 6.38, SE = 2.15, 95% CI [2.32, 10.78] and high levels of outness, b = 13.18, SE = 3.55, 95% CI [6.58, 20.44], but not low levels, b = -0.42, SE = 2.59, 95% CI [-5.55, 4.52].     



Conclusion:

            The link between CSA and distress may be explained, in part, by greater emotion dysregulation. This link was strongest among those with average and high levels of outness, suggesting that outness may not universally confer mental health benefits, at least among CSA survivors.