The Impact of Microaggressions and Minority Stress on the Psychological Well-Being of Emerging Adult Sexual Minorities of Color

Microaggressions impact psychological well-being (PWB) among sexual minorities and people of color (POC). Research to date has explored this relationship among White sexual minorities and POC independently, and not among sexual minorities of color (SMPOC). SMPOC may be at an even greater risk for low PWB due to compounded microaggressions. Emerging adults are also at risk for low PWB, but little is known about PWB among SMPOC emerging adults. The current study examined microaggressions and PWB among emerging adult SMPOC; it also examined outness and PWB among adult sexual minorities. It was hypothesized that: a) SMPOC would report greater microaggressions and lower PWB compared to heterosexuals and White non-Hispanic sexual minorities; b) the relationship between microaggressions and PWB would be stronger for SMPOC than White non-Hispanics; c) the relationship between microaggressions and PWB would be explained by outness; and d) the relationship between microaggressions and outness would be stronger for SMPOC than White non-Hispanics. Results from structural equation modeling revealed: a) on average, SMPOC reported greater racial/ethnic microaggressions and lower PWB, compared to heterosexual POC; b) the mean differences of PWB between SMPOC and heterosexual and sexual minority White non-Hispanics were not statistically significant; c) on average, sexual orientation microaggressions was significantly related to outness, and race/ethnicity significantly moderated that relationship; d) race/ethnicity did not moderate the relationship between sexual orientation microaggressions and PWB; e) while outness did not mediate the relationship between sexual orientation microaggressions and PWB, outness was associated with greater PWB, holding constant sexual orientation microaggressions for all sexual minorities; and f) for SMPOC, outness did not mediate the relationship between intersectional microaggressions and PWB; holding constant intersectional microaggressions, outness was associated with greater PWB, and holding constant outness, intersectional microaggressions was associated with lower PWB. One hypothesis revealed contrary results; compared to White non-Hispanic sexual minorities, SMPOC reported less sexual orientation microaggressions. Findings offer support for increased attention to environmental approaches to preventing microaggressions on college campuses. Moreover, findings argue for developing programs for building resilience among SMPOC