Graduation Year

2021

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The Latinx LGBTQ+ community has been found to be at a greater risk of negative mental health outcomes. Rates of suicide, depression, anxiety, and other mental health issues disproportionately affect this population, but somehow, it is still grossly underrepresented within current literature and conceptualizations of why this community is at such a high risk for poor mental health outcomes are rare. The present proposed study aims to create a new perspective for the analysis of this relationship by incorporating minority stress theory, intersectionality, and culture-specific dimensions to reflect their effects on mental health. Specifically, machismo and marianismo will be analyzed within this conceptualization to provide meaningful cultural context. The proposed methodology involves a series of self-report measures for minority stress, experiences with machismo and marianismo, and mental health followed by semi-structured interviews where conceptualizations of minority stress, and experiences with machismo and marianismo will be explored and recorded. Participants will be anyone over the age of 18 who identifies as either White and LGBTQ+, Latinx and LGBTQ+, or straight and Latinx (N=60) recruited from internet groups that service these communities. The study will confirm that the Latinx LGBTQ+ community is at greater risk of experiencing machismo and marianismo as well as minority stress. It will also support the mediational model that indicates that machismo and marianismo has a significant impact on minority stress, which then greatly influences mental health within Latinx LGBTQ+ community members. In combining these cultural dimensions with conceptualizations of intersectionality, minority stress, and mental health, the proposed study can reflect the lived experiences of this community in order to better serve them.

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