Date of Award

January 2014

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Public Health (MPH)

Department

School of Public Health

First Advisor

John E. Pachankis

Abstract

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to examine the possible time-variant relationship between daily minority stress and same-day affect among gay and bisexual men. Additionally, this study sought to determine whether a lagged association exists between daily minority stress and next-day affect. Lastly, this study examined trajectories of minority stress and affect during the course of the study period. Methods: 371 gay and bisexual men in New York City completed a 30-day daily diary, recording daily experiences of minority stress and daily measures of positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and anxious arousal (AA) (n = 8,415 diary days). Multilevel analyses were run to examine significant relationships between minority stress and affect. Results: Results indicated that daily minority stress significantly predicted a same-day negative relationship with PA and significantly predicted a same-day positive relationship with both NA and AA. In cross-lagged analyses, results indicated that daily minority stress did not significantly predict subsequent-day PA, but significantly predicted a subsequent-day positive relationship with both NA and AA. Over the course of the study period, levels of minority stress and affect decreased slightly, but significantly, among study participants. Conclusions: This is the first study to establish a time-variant relationship between sexual minority stress and affect with implications for gay and bisexual men's mental health more generally. The cross-lagged analysis provides evidence for a potentially causal pathway between minority stress and the affective basis of mood and anxiety disorders among gay and bisexual men.

Keywords: minority stress, affect, gay and bisexual men, depression, anxiety

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This is an Open Access Thesis.

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