UC Davis

Sexual minority well-being is a growing public health concern, as many studies find that they report lower levels of well-being compared to heterosexuals. Minority stress theory, the predominant framework used to explain these differences, proposes that well-being differences emerge because sexual minorities face additional identity-based stressors that add more general stress. That is, sexual minorities face additional interpersonal (e.g., discrimination) and structural (e.g., stigmatizing policies) stress because of people and society’s negative reaction to their sexual identity. Over time, heightened experiences of these stressors can result in internalizing negative feelings about one’s minoritized sexual identity, resulting in further minority stress. While much research has supported the theoretical assumptions of minority stress theory, there are two broad shortcomings of the extant research. This dissertation aims to address these in two chapters. First, much of the extant research examines minority stressors and theoretical moderators in isolation when numerous kinds co-occur and influence one another. Furthermore, at the between-person level, identifying the minority stressors that are the most robust predictors in the population can have important policy implications. Chapter 1 uses a multiverse analysis to test the robustness of the cross-sectional associations of five minority stressors with life satisfaction when accounting for other minority stressors and general stress. I additionally test several theoretical moderators and group differences, which can help contextualize the associations of the various minority stressors. Second, there is much less research on the temporal processes that link minority stressors to sexual minority life satisfaction. As such, it leaves questions about how policy changes that reduce minority stress influence sexual minority life satisfaction over time and whether implementation results in immediate and lasting changes. Chapter 2 examines how the implementation of marriage equality (a reduction in structural stigma) influences life satisfaction levels and slopes for sexual minorities over the span of two decades. Using a natural experiment design with piecewise multilevel growth curve models, I approximate the causal effects of marriage equality in two longitudinal panel studies from Australia and the United Kingdom by comparing life satisfaction levels and trajectories pre- and post-enactment between sexual minorities and heterosexuals. In sum, this dissertation tests several of the assumptions of minority stress theory. This work finds that several minority stressors have robust, negative associations with life satisfaction. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of investigating temporal processes in the effects of minority stress on life satisfaction. Policy changes seem to have important implications for preventing further disparities in sexual minority well-being. Furthermore, there exist many individual differences in the effects of marriage equality that require further research to discern and contextualize how and for whom such policy changes impact life satisfaction.