Sexual Orientation Discrimination Mediates the Relationship between Family Social Support and PTSD symptoms in a Sample of Traumatized Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) Adolescents

We wanted to assess the relationship between discrimination of sexual orientation and family social support as an indicator for PTSD symptoms. Therefore, we examined sexual orientation discrimination stress as a mechanism through which family social support predicts PTSD symptoms in a traumatized sample of LGB adolescents. We recruited (N=76) LGBT adolescents from a social service agency. The sample consisted of 49 males, and 80.3% identified as African-American with a mean age of 19.8 (SD = 2.2). Participants completed a questionnaire battery including questionnaires about stress related to sexual orientation discrimination experiences, PTSD symptoms, and perceived family social support. A mediation model with 1,000 bootstrapping resamples examined the mediating effect of stress from sexual orientation discrimination on family social support and PTSD symptoms. Sexual orientation discrimination stress had a significant indirect effect (95% BCI: -.487, -.005) on the relationship between family social support and PTSD symptoms. Thus we can conclude that the level of family social support on traumatized LGB youths can greatly impact PTSD symptoms.