Introduction

Sexual minority youth experience worse mental health compared to their heterosexual peers, reflecting the consequences of sexual minority-based stigma. Previous research has focused on contextual variation to understand variability within this vulnerability. Childhood temperament factors such as negative affect, effortful control and surgency/extraversion are important for understanding differential susceptibility to environmental stressors. The objective of the current study was to understand how childhood temperament factors, measured prior to the most difficult developmental period for sexual minority youth, moderated the association between sexual minority status and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems.

Methods

Youth reporting same-sex attraction in an ongoing longitudinal project on the development of conduct problems in Quebec, Canada were matched with heterosexual peers, for an analytic sample of 280 youth (62% girls). Structural equation models were used to examine (1) the association between youth-reported same-sex attraction (ages 13–16) and parent and youth-reported internalizing and externalizing problems a year later at ages 14–17, and (2) the moderating role of temperament (ages 6–9) in this association between sexual minority status and internalizing and externalizing problems.

Results

Same-sex attraction was associated with higher levels of youth-reported internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Surgency/extraversion moderated the association between sexual minority status and youth-reported internalizing and externalizing problems.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that temperament linked to individual visibility may be important for understanding variation in self-reported mental health among sexual minority youth, and supports the use of developmental constructs like temperament to better understand vulnerability to psychosocial difficulties within this population.

中文翻译：

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探索儿童气质，作为青少年性少数群体地位与内在和外在行为问题之间关联的调节者。

介绍

与异性伴侣相比，性少数年轻人的心理健康状况较差，这反映了基于性少数的污名的后果。先前的研究集中在上下文变异上，以了解此漏洞内的变异性。童年的气质因素，例如负面影响，努力控制和紧急/外向性，对于理解环境压力的易感性很重要。本研究的目的是了解在性少数年轻人最困难的发育时期之前测得的童年气质因素如何缓解性少数地位与内在化和外在行为问题之间的联系。

方法

在加拿大魁北克正在进行的关于行为问题发展的纵向项目中，报告了同性吸引力的青年人与异性同龄人相匹配，获得了280名青年（62％的女孩）的分析样本。结构方程模型用于检验（1）青年报告的同性吸引力（13-16岁）与父母和青年报告的内在化和外在化问题之间的关联，这些问题在一年后的14-17岁出现，以及（2）在少数群体性地位与内在和外在问题之间的这种关联中，气质（6-9岁）的调节作用适中。

结果

同性吸引与青年报告的更高水平的内在化和外在化行为问题相关。紧急情况/外向性缓解了性少数群体地位与青年报告的内在化和外在化问题之间的联系。

结论

这些发现表明，与个人能见度相关的气质对于理解性少数年轻人中自我报告的心理健康变化可能很重要，并支持使用诸如气质之类的发展性结构来更好地理解该人群中心理社会困难的脆弱性。