Mental health of sexual minorities: Incorporating social processes into a psychological model

研究表明，女同性恋者、男同性恋者和双性恋者比异性恋者更有可能经历心理健康问题，包括焦虑和抑郁(King，2008)。识别导致这种脆弱性的因素的研究可以帮助我们制定干预措施，以减少这一群体的痛苦。与认知理论(例如，Beck，1979)一致的研究表明，对自我的核心负面信念导致了性少数群体的心理健康问题。特别是，可能涉及低自尊，因为性少数群体往往比异性恋者的自尊更低(Bridge等人，2019年)。也有人认为，对他人的负面核心信念会导致心理健康问题。然而，很少有研究考虑到性少数群体个体对他人的信念，以及这些信念如何影响心理健康。该项目将通过将社会科学的理论与心理健康问题的心理学模型相结合来解决这些差距。将对性少数群体进行访谈，以调查他们对他人的信念的内容，以及他们与社会经历的关系。将开发一种自我报告测量来评估对他人的信仰，这将被用来比较异性恋人群和性少数群体之间的信仰，并调查信仰与耻辱经历的联系。最后，将制定和试行针对性少数群体的干预措施，以解决这种负面观念。

Studies have shown that lesbian, gay and bisexual peopleare more likely to experience mental health issues thanheterosexuals, including anxiety and depression (King,2008). Research identifying factors contributing to thisvulnerability could help us develop interventions to reducedistress in this group. Consistent with cognitive theories(e.g. Beck, 1979), research suggests that core negativebeliefs about the self contribute to mental health issuesamong sexual minorities. In particular, low self-esteemmay be implicated, as sexual minorities tend to have lowerself-esteem than heterosexuals (Bridge et al., 2019). It isalso thought that negative core beliefs about otherscontribute to mental health issues. However, little researchhas considered sexual minority individuals' beliefs aboutothers, and how these beliefs affect mental health. Thisproject will address these gaps by incorporating theoriesfrom social sciences with psychological models of mentalhealth issues. Interviews will be conducted with sexualminority people to investigate the content of their beliefsabout others and how they relate to social experiences. Aself-report measure will be developed to assess beliefsabout others, which will be used to compare beliefsbetween heterosexual people and sexual minorities, and toinvestigate how beliefs associate with experiences ofstigma. Finally, an intervention for sexual minorities aimingto address such negative beliefs will be developed andpiloted.