Dev Psychol. 2025 Apr 28. doi: 10.1037/dev0001968. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
The present study investigated whether the patterns of intersectional stigma experiences were associated with differences in the developmental, parallel trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms across the transition to adulthood among Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx cisgender sexual minority young men. Data were from the Healthy Young Men’s Cohort Study collected semiannually from 2016 to 2020 in Los Angeles and included 426 cisgender Black, Latinx, and Afro-Latinx sexual minority young men between the ages of 18 and 25 at baseline. Multidomain latent growth modeling with a complex grouping variable was used to estimate the parallel trajectories of anxious and depressive symptoms and whether these trajectories varied based on the patterns of intersectional stigma at baseline. Models were adjusted for individually varying age of observations to approximate the growth processes from ages 18 to 29. Results demonstrated a general decline in anxious symptoms and depressive symptoms over time. Relative to all other patterns of stigma experiences, the subgroup characterized by a pattern of compounding racism and heterosexism exhibited the highest levels of anxious and depressive symptoms and an earlier peak in anxious symptoms. This compound stigma group also exhibited an earlier and the highest peak in anxious symptoms compared to all other groups. Results highlight the impact of intersecting stigma on mental health across early adult development, the need for mental health intervention early or before the transition to adulthood, and continued effort to challenge and combat racist and heterosexist biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
PMID:40310181 | DOI:10.1037/dev0001968
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