5 - (IOP 32) Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Sexual Minority Young Adults: The Role of Relationship Status, Quality, and Support

Sexual and gender minority people experience psychological distress at disproportionally high rates due to experiences of discrimination and stigma. Romantic relationships may buffer against negative outcomes of discrimination, particularly for those in satisfying relationships and whose partners provide high levels of emotion regulation support.

We investigated whether relationship status, perceived relationship quality, and perceived partner emotion regulation supportiveness (i.e., partner responsiveness, physical presence, hostility, and cognitive support when providing regulatory support) moderated the association between recent discrimination and depressive symptoms among 456 sexual minority young adults (mean age: 24.8 years).

Participants were diverse in sexual orientation (five largest categories: 36.7% bisexual, 23.9% queer, 12.3% pansexual, 11.4% lesbian, 6.6% gay) and gender identity (five largest categories: 35.1% cisgender woman, 22.4% non-binary, 12.9% trans man, 8.1%, trans woman, 7.2% cisgender man). Via an online survey, participants reported relationship status, frequency of recently experienced sexual orientation-based discrimination, and current depressive symptoms. Participants in monogamous or consensually non-monogamous relationships (83.3%) also reported on relationship quality and perceived partner emotion regulation supportiveness.

Recent discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms (b=2.27, p<.001). As expected, this association was significantly moderated by relationship status (b=-5.66, p=.02) such that it was weaker for romantically involved (b=3.78, p<.001) relative to single participants (b=9.44, p<.001). Among romantically involved participants, neither relationship quality nor perceived partner emotion regulation supportiveness significantly moderated the discrimination-depressive symptoms association.

Findings highlight the protective role romantic involvement may play in attenuating the negative impact of discrimination on depressive symptoms. Future research should clarify processes that contribute this attenuation in sexual minority young adults. The non-significant moderating effects of relationship quality and partner emotion regulation supportiveness suggest that the negative psychological impact of discrimination is robust and present even among those in highly satisfying relationships and who receive high levels of emotion regulation support from their partners.