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Emily Christine Newbury is a 2019 graduate of the PsyD Program in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University, New England

Dissertation Committee

  • Gargi Roysircar, EdD, Committee Chair
  • Jill Lee-Barber, PhD, Committee Member
  • Shannon Jackson, PsyD, Committee Member

Keywords

LGB, minority stress, internalized homophobia, mental health, assessment

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2019

Abstract

Meyer’s (2003) minority stress model explores the relationship between the social stress of sexual minorities and mental health. Internalized homophobia is linked to feelings of shame, guilt, and worthlessness, and contributes to the development of mental health problems (Ramirez-Valles, Molina, & Dirkes, 2013). The present study examined the relationship between internalized homophobia and mental health in young adults who identify as LGB. Participants (N =130) were recruited from universities in Connecticut and Georgia, as well as from the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. It was hypothesized that higher levels of internalized homophobia would be related to higher levels of self-reported anxiety, depression, and substance use. Pearson correlation analyses revealed significant moderate positive correlations between internalized homophobia and depression, r = .565, p < .001, anxiety, r = .493, p < .001, and substance use, r = .360, p < .001. Three one-way ANOVAs were performed to examine differences on depression, anxiety, and substance use, respectively, for levels of internalized homophobia. No significant differences were observed, although significance levels were narrowly missed for depression and substance use. The study revealed important multiple regression findings for sociodemographics with (a) depression scores decreasing for higher social class and increasing for international students, (b) anxiety scores increasing for lack of family support and international students’ status, and (c) substance use scores decreasing for international students status and higher social class. The implications of LGB issues for social class and international student status are discussed with regard to recommendations for multicultural psychology. The complexities of internalized homophobia, its process, and its clinical assessment with LGB clients are also discussed.

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Emily Christine Newbury

ORCID Scholar ID# : 0000-0002-1774-7894

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