2 - (SYM 51) Masking Emotion, Suppressing the Self: Queer and Trans Young Adults' Emotional Experiencing in the Context of Interpersonal Stress and Identity-related Invalidation

Background: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals are at elevated risk for significant, chronic invalidation of their emotions and identities, and invalidation and stigma can contribute to difficulties with emotion dysregulation (e.g., difficulties down-regulating emotions) in SGM people. Yet, few studies have explored how invalidating environments may result in SGM individuals “over-controlling” or inflexibly down-regulating their emotions. This mixed method study presents preliminary qualitative findings of emotional overcontrol in response to invalidation-related emotions in a sample of SGM young adults.

Methods: A purposive community sample of 28 SGM young adults (M_age=26.3, SD_age=1.87) completed semi-structured qualitative interviews evaluating their experiences with invalidation, minority stress, and emotion regulation. They also completed a demographic questionnaire and measures of minority stress and borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Systematic qualitative coding is ongoing, and results of preliminary applied thematic analyses are presented below.

Results: Several sub-themes within the overarching theme of emotional overcontrol emerged from the qualitative data. First, participants often described themselves as having strong emotions at baseline, but inhibiting outward emotional expression (i.e., “masking”) to present as calm and controlled. Second, though masking was a generalized response across stressor types, masking was particularly reinforced by identity-related invalidation (e.g., a nonbinary participant masks to avoid being accused of having a “woman moment” if they appear “emotional”). Third, participants discussed also suppressing internal experiences of emotion during interpersonal stress, particularly sadness, grief, loneliness, and anger. Final analyses will stratify qualitative findings on emotional overcontrol by questionnaire-endorsed levels of minority stress and BPD symptoms.

Conclusions: Masking and emotion suppression were among the most common emotion regulation strategies described by SGM young adults overall, and were likely to arise in response to identity-specific invalidation and loss-related emotions (i.e., sadness). Emotional overcontrol may represent an underrecognized clinical presentation among SGM individuals, and a relevant treatment target for those quietly suffering from the impacts of chronic invalidation and minority stress.