Psychology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2270
Browse
5 results
Search Results
Item Minority stressors and their associations with severe psychological distress among gender-diverse people(American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 2022) Pease, M; Williams, Natasha; Iwamoto, Derek; Salerno, JohnPeople whose gender does not align with assigned sex often experience negative mental health outcomes related to cisnormative societal expectations and oppression, including familial rejection, threat of harm, and identity invalidation (e.g., misgendering). This study merged two cross-sectional data sets of trans and gender-diverse people (N = 363; Mage = 22.02) investigating how various types of distal minority stress experiences impact psychological distress. We tested the associations between three minority stressors (i.e., family rejection, threat of harm, and identity invalidation) and psychological distress using unadjusted and adjusted regression models, including gender-stratified models. In the overall unadjusted model, all three stressors were significantly, positively associated with psychological distress, with identity invalidation having the highest standardized β value. In the adjusted overall model, only identity invalidation was significantly associated with distress. Results varied in gender-stratified models. Additionally, participants who experienced any of the three stressors had predicted mean distress scores at or above the cutoff for severe psychological distress, while those who did not fell below that cutoff. Results highlight the differential impact of minority stress experiences on gender-diverse young adults and provide directions for clinical competency, interventions, and future research toward understanding mental health disparities for trans people.Item Minority Stress, Pandemic Stress, and Mental Health among Gender Diverse Young Adults: Gender Dysphoria and Emotion Dysregulation as Mediators(Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2022) Pease, M; Le, Thomas; Iwamoto, DerekGender diverse people in the United States are uniquely vulnerable to deleterious health outcomes because of long-enshrined systems of oppression and marginalization in American society. Trans young adults are especially vulnerable to these deleterious outcomes owing to their unique position in the life course. However, more research is needed on the mechanisms through which this marginalization contributes to mental health disparities in trans populations. Using a minority stress framework and online cross-sectional survey design, the current study examines potential mediators of the relationship between transgender identity-related distal stress and psychological distress from late May to early July 2020 in a sample of transgender young adults (N = 239; ages 18–29). More than half the sample scored above the K6 cutoff for severe psychological distress. Distal stress had a significant direct (β = .17, SE = .04, t = 2.76, p = .006) and indirect effect on psychological distress. Distal stress was indirectly associated with psychological distress through gender dysphoria (β = .04; 95% CI [.001, .10]) and emotion dysregulation (β = .16; 95% CI [.09, .23]). COVID-19 pandemic stressors were also positively associated with psychological distress (β = .36, SE = .12, t = 5.95, p < .001). Results highlight the significant mental health burden facing the trans community especially in the COVID-19 context, support a conceptualization of gender dysphoria as connected to experiences of oppression, and affirm the relevance of emotion dysregulation within minority stress frameworks. Mental health resources cognizant of the specific challenges experienced by trans young adults as well as policy changes that seek to address underlying structural transphobia in American culture and institutions are urgently needed.Item The Effects of Discrimination on Black Mothers’ Internalizing Symptoms and Parenting Behavior(2020-01-20) Williams, Amber; Dougherty, Lea; Dunbar, AngelCan discrimination impact mothers’ mental health and parenting? Based on prior literature, I formed four hypotheses: Black mothers’ experiences with discrimination will be positively correlated to depressive and anxiety symptoms; depressive symptoms would be positively correlated with punitive and minimizing parental responses; anxiety symptoms would be positively correlated to punitive and minimizing parental responses; and, discrimination will be positively correlated to parental punitive and minimizing responses to children’s emotions. I conducted a secondary data analysis using data from the School Transitions and Academic Readiness Project (STAR) at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (N=277). Participants (n=86) included Black mothers and their 4-6 year old children, and measures assessed discrimination, depression, anxiety, and parent emotional socialization in relation to punitive and minimizing parenting practices. Results revealed a trend association between mother-reported racial discrimination and their depressive symptoms, r = .18, p < .10, and a significant positive correlation between mother-reported discrimination and anxiety symptoms, r = .22, p < .05. There was a significant positive correlation between mothers’ depressive symptoms and parental punitive responses, r = .43, p < .05, as well as between mothers’ depressive symptoms and parental minimizing responses, r = .34, p < .05. There was a significant positive correlation between mothers’ anxiety symptoms and parental punitive responses, r = .31, p < .05, and a significant positive correlation between mothers’ anxiety symptoms and parental minimizing responses, r = .24, p < .05. There was no significant correlation between mothers’ discrimination experiences and parenting for either parental punitive or minimizing responses. Results suggest that mothers’ discrimination experiences were related to their internalizing symptoms but not the mothers’ parenting behaviors. Future longitudinal work is necessary to examine whether discrimination may impact parenting over time via parents’ depressive or anxiety symptoms.Item Work adjustment in persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA): A biopsychosocial perspective(2004-11-15) Baker, Lisa; Hoffman, Mary Ann; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)While there is evidence that Persons Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHWA) have unique and changing needs and concerns in their workplaces, such as changes in health status, high medical costs, emotional consequences of the disease, and concerns about discrimination, no previous studies could be found on work adjustment (e.g., job satisfaction) in PLWHA. However, past research has linked employment disruption and decisions to disease progression, cognitive impairment, physical symptoms, depression/anxiety, concern about discrimination, and medical costs (e.g., Ezzy et al., 1999; Heaton et al., 1994; Martin, Brooks, Ortiz, & Veniegas, 2003). Therefore, this study tested a biopsychosocial model of work adjustment in employed PLWHA (N = 57), based on Hoffman and Driscoll's (2002) Concentric Biopsychosocial Model. It was hypothesized that physical health (fatigue and pain), psychological adjustment, and work support/environment would uniquely predict work adjustment (e.g., job satisfaction), where psychosocial variables were expected to account for the most of the variance explained. With the exception of pain symptoms, the predictor variables in the model were found to correlate with the primary outcome, job satisfaction. A hierarchical block-wise regression was then utilized to test the model, where the physical health variable (i.e. energy/fatigue) was entered first, followed by the entry of the psychological adjustment variable in the second block. The work environment variables (i.e., perceived supervisor support, perceived discrimination) were entered in the third and final block. Results partially supported the proposed model with 25% of the variance in job satisfaction explained in the third step, where perceived supervisor support and workplace discrimination accounted for a statistically significant amount of the variance. These findings support the importance of examining perceptions of workplace environment when addressing work adjustment and employment concerns of PLWHA.Item The Effect of Organizational Climate on the Attribution to Discrimination Process(2004-04-12) Leslie, Lisa Michelle; Gelfand, Michele J; Stangor, Charles; PsychologyResearch on the multi-stage attribution to discrimination process (construct accessibility, perceiving, and reporting of discrimination) focuses on individual difference antecedents and tends to examine one stage in each study (e.g. Major et al., 2002; Stangor, Sechrist, & Swim, 1999; Swim & Hyers, 1999). The current study extends research on this process by examining the interactive effect of individual differences and organizational climate on all three stages of the attribution to discrimination process in an organizational simulation study. Findings indicate that Climate for Intolerance for Discrimination interacts with individual based sensitivity to sexism to predict perceptions of discrimination. Furthermore, perceptions of discrimination fully mediate the relationship between the climate by sensitivity interaction and reporting of discrimination to the organization.