Abstract

The present study explores how identifying with the gender and sexual minority (GSM) community can be an important developmental milestone and potential protective factor for GSM individuals. Cross-sectional data were collected from the United States using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) to garner a nationally representative sample of individuals (n = 365) between the ages of 18-29 (M = 25.07 years old) who self-identified as a sexual and/or gender minority. Results of a structural equation model indicated that a higher sense of GSM identity salience was associated with greater attribution of their negative experiences to prejudice, which was associated with decreased well-being. Importantly, identifying with the GSM community was a protective factor for this population. Whereas higher attributions of negative experiences to prejudice were directly associated with decreases in well-being, when explained through group identification, the association was positive. This paper extends current research on the GSM community by situating group identification as a process of one’s overall identity development and exploring the protective factors related to this identification. The study highlights the important ways in which connecting with other gender and sexual minority individuals can protect the individuals in this population from the negative outcomes of prejudice.

摘要

本研究探讨了与性别和性少数群体（GSM）共同认同如何成为GSM个人重要的发展里程碑和潜在的保护因素。横断面数据是使用亚马逊的Mechanical Turk（MTurk）从美国收集的，以收集全国代表性 的18至29岁之间个体（n = 365）的样本（M = 25.07岁），这些人自认是性少数群体和/或性别少数群体。结构方程模型的结果表明，较高的GSM身份显着性与他们的负面经历对偏见的归属更大有关，这与幸福感下降有关。重要的是，与GSM社区的认同是该人群的保护因素。负面经验对偏见的较高归因与幸福感的下降直接相关，当通过群体认同进行解释时，该联想为正相关。本文通过将群体识别定位为一个人的整体身份发展的过程，并探索与该识别相关的保护因素，扩展了对GSM社区的当前研究。