McKernan Scott, D'Andrea Wendy, Collier Amanda, Pyzewski Marlee L, Cao Tony, Caligiuri Sarah, Milbert Melissa, Feldmiller Joshua, Feingold Michele, Min Marcus, Neves Nadia, Herzog Sarah, Khedari Vivian, Stafford Erin, Freed Steven, DePierro Jonathan, Minshew Reese, Doukas Ashley, Polanco-Roman Lillian, Yates Ellen H, Siegle Greg J
Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research.
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Stigma Health. 2025 Aug;10(3):467-475. doi: 10.1037/sah0000498. Epub 2024 Feb 29.
Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations have substantially higher rates of most psychopathologies. Several theoretical models have been proposed attributing the disparities to either a) stressors related to their minoritized status (i.e., minority stress) or b) that stressors a pre-existing vulnerability. A parallel body of research posits minority stress as a form of trauma and connects discrimination to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The present study attempts bridge these two areas of literature by testing if SGM status-a proxy for minority stress-predicts in PTSD symptoms after accounting for conventional trauma (i.e., childhood maltreatment, actual or threatened death/bodily harm, sexual violence, and other stressful life events) or if SGM status conventional trauma to non-linearly increase PTSD symptoms. First, the validity of using SGM status as a proxy for minority stress was examined in a subsample of participants. Then, to test our primary hypotheses, a post-hoc analysis of a study investigating common psycho-biological adaptations to trauma was completed.
Results supported the use of SGM status as a proxy and the additive, as opposed to interactive, model. After accounting for conventional trauma, SGM status predicted additional variance in PTSD symptoms and diagnosis.
Although tentative, these findings suggest that minority stress may be additive to trauma symptomatology in SGM individuals and therefore be an important factor to consider when assessing for and treating PTSD in this population. Future research that directly measures minority stress should be conducted to validate these findings.
性取向和性别少数群体（SGM）患大多数精神疾病的几率要高得多。已经提出了几种理论模型，将这些差异归因于：a）与其少数群体地位相关的压力源（即少数群体压力）；或b）压力源引发的预先存在的易感性。另一项相关研究将少数群体压力视为一种创伤形式，并将歧视与创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）联系起来。
本研究试图通过检验SGM身份（少数群体压力的一个代表指标）在考虑传统创伤（即童年虐待、实际或受到威胁的死亡/身体伤害、性暴力以及其他压力性生活事件）后是否能预测PTSD症状，或者SGM身份是否与传统创伤相互作用以非线性方式增加PTSD症状，来弥合这两个文献领域之间的差距。首先，在参与者的一个子样本中检验了使用SGM身份作为少数群体压力代表指标的有效性。然后，为了检验我们的主要假设，完成了一项对研究创伤常见心理生物学适应情况的研究的事后分析。
结果支持将SGM身份用作代表指标以及相加模型而非交互模型。在考虑传统创伤后，SGM身份预测了PTSD症状和诊断中的额外方差。
尽管这些发现具有初步性，但它们表明少数群体压力可能会增加SGM个体的创伤症状，因此在评估和治疗该人群的PTSD时是一个需要考虑的重要因素。应该进行直接测量少数群体压力的未来研究以验证这些发现。
