Veldhuis Cindy B, Hughes Tonda L, Drabble Laurie, Wilsnack Sharon, Matthews Alicia
School of Nursing, Columbia University.
College of Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Psychol Sex Orientat Gend Divers. 2020 Sep;7(3):337-352. doi: 10.1037/sgd0000383. Epub 2020 Apr 23.
Sexual minority women (SMW; e.g., lesbian, bisexual) are more likely than heterosexual women to be heavy drinkers, with bisexual women showing the highest risk. There is ample literature demonstrating that intimate relationships protect against stress-related health risk behaviors in the general population. However, very little research has focused on SMW's relationships and far less is known about the relationships of SMW of color. Using intersectionality theory as our framework, we tested two competing models to determine whether the effects of minority sexual identity (lesbian, bisexual) and race/ethnicity (African American, Latinx, White) are: 1) additive, or 2) multiplicative in the associations between relationship status and heavy drinking.
Data are from a diverse sample of cisgender sexual minority women (N = 641) interviewed in Wave 3 of the CHLEW study, a 20-year longitudinal study of SMW's health.
Findings from two- and three-way interactions provide mixed evidence for both the additive and multiplicative hypotheses; support for each varied by sexual identity and race/ethnicity. Overall, we found that Latinx SMW, particularly single and bisexual Latinx SMW report the highest rates of heavy drinking compared to their cohabiting and lesbian counterparts, respectively. African American single SMW reported significantly higher rates of heavy drinking compared to their cohabiting counterparts.
Our findings suggest that the protective qualities of SMW's intimate relationships vary based on sexual identity and race/ethnicity-and the intersections between them. These results highlight that research among SMW that does not take into account multiple marginalized identities may obscure differences.
Little research has focused on health within sexual minority women's relationships, particularly among sexual minority women of color. Given the potential additive or multiplicative effects of multiple sources of oppression such as heterosexism, racism, and sexism, understanding the potential protective effects of relationships is important. Our findings demonstrate that the protective qualities of intimate relationships among SMW vary based on sexual identity and race/ethnicity - and the intersections between them.
性少数群体女性（SMW；例如女同性恋者、双性恋者）比异性恋女性更有可能成为酗酒者，其中双性恋女性的风险最高。有大量文献表明，亲密关系可预防普通人群中与压力相关的健康风险行为。然而，很少有研究关注性少数群体女性的关系，对于有色人种性少数群体女性的关系了解更少。我们以交叉性理论为框架，测试了两个相互竞争的模型，以确定少数性取向身份（女同性恋、双性恋）和种族/族裔（非裔美国人、拉丁裔、白人）在关系状况与酗酒之间的关联中是：1）相加的，还是2）相乘的。
数据来自对顺性别性少数群体女性（N = 641）的多样化样本的访谈，这些访谈是在CHLEW研究的第3波中进行的，CHLEW是一项对性少数群体女性健康进行的为期20年的纵向研究。
双向和三向交互作用的结果为相加和相乘假设都提供了混合证据；对每个假设的支持因性取向身份和种族/族裔而异。总体而言，我们发现，与同居的拉丁裔性少数群体女性和女同性恋拉丁裔性少数群体女性相比，拉丁裔性少数群体女性，特别是单身和双性恋拉丁裔性少数群体女性报告的酗酒率最高。与同居的非裔美国单身性少数群体女性相比，她们报告的酗酒率显著更高。
我们的研究结果表明，性少数群体女性亲密关系的保护作用因性取向身份和种族/族裔以及它们之间的交叉点而异。这些结果凸显出，在性少数群体女性中进行的研究若不考虑多种边缘化身份，可能会掩盖差异。
很少有研究关注性少数群体女性关系中的健康问题，尤其是有色人种性少数群体女性。鉴于异性恋主义、种族主义和性别歧视等多种压迫来源可能存在相加或相乘效应，了解关系的潜在保护作用很重要。我们的研究结果表明，性少数群体女性之间亲密关系的保护作用因性取向身份和种族/族裔以及它们之间的交叉点而异。
