Session: [WITHDRAWN] Internalized Stigma Among LGBTQ+ Youth and Adults: Measurement, Racial/Ethnic Issues, Social Support, and Mental Health Outcomes (Society for Social Work and Research 28th Annual Conference - Recentering & Democratizing Knowledge: The Next 30 Years of Social Work Science)

LGBTQ+ people face various socially-based stressors due to their stigmatized and minoritized identities. A prominent stressor is internalized stigma, which has been referred to using various terms (e.g., internalized homophobia). Internalized stigma occurs among queer people when then mentally incorporate negative societal views about their identity, such as beliefs that LGBTQ+ desires, relationships, and/or identities are abnormal, immoral, and/or unhealthy. All of the papers in this symposium center on internalized stigma among LGBTQ+ youth or adults.

Paper 1: Internalized stigma can exist explicitly (i.e., using deliberate conscious thought) or implicitly (i.e., outside of conscious awareness and automatically activated). Queer research has largely focused on explicit internalized stigma. A valid and reliable measure of implicit internalized stigma did not exist; therefore, we developed a version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure to measure this phenomenon. Data were collected from a national sample (N = 500) of queer adults. We will describe the mixed-methods approach to create the measure, and then present results from confirmatory factor analysis, correlational analyses for convergent and divergent validity, and internal consistency reliability.

Paper 2: This study examined the relationship between racial/ethnic identification, non-affirming cultural environments, and internalized homonegativity among sexual minority adolescents using national data from sexual minority adolescents (N = 2,558). First, we examined the relationship between racial identification and non-affirming cultural environments. Identifying with any non-White racial group compared to White was associated with reporting higher scores on non-affirming racial/ethnic environments, while, identifying as Black and Latino/Hispanic compared to White was associated with non-affirming religious environment. We also found a positive association between non-affirming cultural environments and internalized homonegativity.

Paper 3: Social support is conceptualized as a protective factor against the effects of internalized homophobia on depression in sexual minority populations. Evidence of this relationship stems from studies with predominantly White samples, resulting in a dearth of information on Black sexual minority individuals. This study examined relationships between internalized homophobia, depression, and different types of lower social support (i.e., family, friends, Black community, gay community) using a mediation model. Internalized homophobia was positively associated with all types of lower support. Lower family, friend, and Black community support were all positively associated with depression. Family, friend, and Black community support partially mediated the relationship between internalized homophobia and depression. However, gay community support did not. Results suggest that the relationship between social support and depression is complex for Black sexual minority men.

Paper 4: We completed a systematic review and meta-analysis examining the relationships between internalized stigma and outcomes of depression and suicide risk among queer youth. Most studies examined general internalized homophobia, with few examining internalized biphobia or transphobia. Many studies examined depression as an outcome, few studies examined suicidal ideation or behavior, and no studies examined non-suicidal self-injury. We present meta-analyses results showing the associations between general internalized queer stigma and depressive symptoms, internalized transphobia and depressive outcomes, and general internalized queer stigma and suicide risk (i.e., suicidal ideation and suicide attempt).

Together, these papers advance empirical insight into internalized stigma among queer people.