Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-2016

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Counseling

Major Professor

Joseph R. Miles

Committee Members

Dawn Szymanski, Joanne Hall, John Lounsbury

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examined the relationships between minority stress (e.g. anti-bisexual experiences and internalized biphobia), trauma and depressive symptoms, and self-reported physical health for a sample of online-recruited, bisexual adults. Using a minority stress framework that included physical health and conceptualizing experiences of discrimination/prejudice as a type of trauma, a model was hypothesized in which experiences of anti-bisexual discrimination would uniquely relate to trauma-related symptoms (as would exposure to other, general traumatic events) and indirectly impact physical health through these trauma symptoms. Also, it was predicted that anti-bisexual experiences would directly relate to internalized biphobia, with internalized biphobia, then, associating with depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms significantly relating to physical health. Indirectly in this model, anti-bisexual experiences and internalized biphobia would impact physical health. Results indicated partial support for this hypothesized model. Anti-bisexual experiences related to physical health, mediated by trauma symptoms, and in the final model, also related to depressive symptoms mediated by trauma symptoms. No support was found for the hypothesized relationship between internalized biphobia, depressive symptoms, and physical health. Twenty percent of the variance was explained for physical health. Overall, results support the notion that experiencing discrimination and prejudice associates with trauma-symptoms that generally thought to derive from life-threatening events, and has implications for physical well-being, too.

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