Browsing by Author "Seager van Dyk I"

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    Acceptability of LGBTQ-Affirmative Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Youth: Results from a Pilot Study
    (2023-04-01) Seager van Dyk I; Layland EK; Soulliard ZA; Pachankis JE
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    Attitudes Toward Gay Men and Lesbian Women Moderate Heterosexual Adults’ Subjective Stress Response to Witnessing Homonegativity
    (Frontiers Media S.A, 2019) Hahn H; Seager van Dyk I; Ahn W-Y
    Minority stress theory posits that members of a stigmatized group, such as sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual individuals), are particularly subject to ill effects of minority-specific events (stressors), including overt homonegativity. Although adverse effects of homonegativity are well documented for sexual minorities, little is known about effects of witnessing homonegativity on heterosexual individuals. As a growing number of heterosexual individuals hold accepting views of sexual minority individuals, some detrimental effects of homonegativity may extend to heterosexual individuals. For example, prior studies demonstrate that when racial majority-group members witness discrimination against minority-group members, they may experience stress response, particularly if they hold positive attitudes toward the minority-group. In this experimental study, 263 heterosexual adults (Mage = 34.47 years, SD = 9.67, 51.7% female) were randomized to either witness homonegativity or to a control condition. Participants rated subjective stress on a 0–100 visual analogue scale both immediately before and after the film-based induction. Participants also completed a measure of their attitudes toward gay men and lesbian women. Moderation analyses indicated that participants who were more accepting of gay men and lesbian women experienced greater stress after the induction than those with less accepting views. Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
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    Coming out under fire: The role of minority stress and emotion regulation in sexual orientation disclosure
    (Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2022-05-02) Seager van Dyk I; Aldao A; Pachankis JE
    Minority stress is hypothesized to interfere with sexual orientation disclosure and sexual minority wellbeing. In this study, we investigated whether minority stress is causally linked to reduced disclosure in sexual minorities, and whether emotion regulation, a potentially adaptive form of stigma coping, can intervene to promote disclosure even following exposure to minority stress. Sexual minority adults in the US (N = 168) were recruited online and randomized to a 2 x 2 between-subjects experimental design, where they: 1) received either emotion regulation instructions that asked them to either distance themselves from an emotionally evocative film clip or immerse themselves in the clip, and then 2) viewed either an affirming or a minority stress film clip. Following the film clip, participants completed a written reflection task in which they reflected on the film clip they viewed, which allowed research assistants to subsequently code for participants’ spontaneous disclosures of sexual orientation. Participants who viewed the minority stress clip were significantly less likely to spontaneously disclose their sexual orientation in the written task compared to those who viewed the affirming film clip, OR = 3.21, 95% CI [1.14, 9.05], p = .03. Although the emotion regulation manipulation was successful, there was no effect on sexual orientation disclosure. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate a causal link between minority stress and disclosure in sexual minorities, and thus highlights an important mechanism underlying minority stress’s effects on sexual minority wellbeing. Results demonstrate the importance of interventions that affirm marginalized identities and promote safe sexual orientation disclosure. Future research is needed to determine the circumstances under which effective emotion regulation can buffer against the negative emotional effects of minority stress to promote healthy approach behaviors like disclosure in safe contexts.