College of Nursing, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Center for Healthy Aging, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
Ann Behav Med. 2022 Jun 29;56(6):536-550. doi: 10.1093/abm/kaab062.
Daily stress plays a significant role in mental and physical health. Negative mood (e.g., hopelessness) and physical symptoms (e.g., headaches) are responses often associated with daily stressors. It is theorized that some people or populations are more vulnerable or reactive to daily stressors. We propose sexual orientation as one factor that is associated with daily stress exposure and reactivity.
To understand whether sexual minorities (SMs) differ from heterosexuals in their exposure and reactivity to general, non-sexual minority-specific stressors (e.g., arguments/disagreements, job concerns).
We used daily diary data (n = 3,323 heterosexuals [52% identified as female and 85% identified as White]; n = 98 SMs [50% identified as female and 93% identified as White]) from the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE). Participants completed eight consecutive evening daily diary interviews (n days = 24,773; mean days completed = 7.24) and reported daily stress exposure and daily well-being. We used multilevel modeling as an approach to examine whether sexual orientation interacted with daily stressors to predict daily negative affect and physical health.
SMs tended to experience more daily stressors compared to heterosexuals; specifically, SMs reported at least one stressor on nearly half (48%) of the study days they completed, and heterosexuals reported at least one stressor on about two-fifths (41%) of the study days they completed. SMs also tended to experience more negative mood when they experienced a daily stressor compared to heterosexuals when they experienced a daily stressor.
We emphasize the importance of SMs' exposure and reactivity to general daily stressors and the implications of our results for the day-to-day lives and health of SMs.
日常压力对身心健康有重要影响。负面情绪（如绝望）和身体症状（如头痛）是与日常压力源相关的常见反应。理论上，有些人或人群对日常压力源更脆弱或更敏感。我们提出性取向是与日常压力源暴露和反应性相关的一个因素。
了解性少数群体（SM）与异性恋者在暴露于非特定于性少数群体的一般性压力源（如争吵/意见不合、工作担忧）以及对这些压力源的反应上是否存在差异。
我们使用了来自国家日常经验研究（NSDE）的每日日记数据（异性恋者 3323 人[52%为女性，85%为白人]；SM 98 人[50%为女性，93%为白人]）。参与者完成了连续 8 个晚上的每日日记访谈（n 天=24773；平均完成天数=7.24），并报告了每日压力源暴露和每日幸福感。我们使用多层模型来检验性取向是否与每日压力源相互作用，从而预测每日负面情绪和身体健康。
与异性恋者相比，SM 经历的日常压力源更多；具体来说，SM 在他们完成的研究日中，近一半（48%）至少经历了一次压力源，而异性恋者在他们完成的研究日中，约五分之二（41%）至少经历了一次压力源。与异性恋者相比，SM 在经历日常压力源时，情绪也更容易变得负面。
我们强调了 SM 对一般性日常压力源的暴露和反应性的重要性，以及我们的研究结果对 SM 日常生活和健康的影响。
