Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Psychology

Document Type

Dissertation

Abstract

Suicide is an enormous public health burden that disproportionately affects sexual minority people. One theory that has attempted to explain this phenomenon is Minority Stress Theory, which suggests that certain types of stressors (e.g., discrimination) and internal processes (e.g., rejection sensitivity, identity concealment, internalized heterosexism) lead sexual minority people to have increases in mental distress and suicide. We tested minority stress theory using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) in a sample of 70 sexual minority people with suicidal thoughts in the past month. Relationships between discrimination and change in suicidal ideation were assessed using mixed-effect linear regression models. Each model was rerun controlling for the role of negative affect. Multilevel structural equation models were run to determine whether discriminatory events significantly predicted variation in internalized homophobia, rejection sensitivity, and identity concealment, which then predicted variation in suicidal ideation. The mixed-effect linear regression models revealed that presence of any discriminatory event predicted suicidal ideation severity and intensity, and this did not change when controlling for negative affect. Number of discriminatory events did not predict suicidal ideation severity or intensity, and this did not change when controlling for negative affect. Our full multilevel structural equation models predicting suicidal ideation severity and intensity from presence and number of discriminatory events through proximal stressors (internalized heterosexism, rejection sensitivity, and identity concealment) suggested poor model fit for all models, which indicates that the results of these models may be unreliable. However, due to the dearth of research on this subject, these models’ results were still reported. In these models, presence of a discriminatory event predicted increases in internalized heterosexism and rejection sensitivity, but not identity concealment. Number of discriminatory events predicted increases in internalized heterosexism and identity concealment, but not rejection sensitivity. Rejection sensitivity predicted decreases in suicidal ideation intensity. Internalized heterosexism, rejection sensitivity, and identity concealment did not mediate the relationship between discrimination and suicidal ideation severity or intensity in any model. Our findings suggest the importance of sexuality-specific discriminatory experiences to suicidal ideation. More research needs to be done on this entire pathway using ecological momentary assessment methods to truly parse these relationships.

Date

7-6-2026

Committee Chair

Capron, Daniel W.

LSU Acknowledgement

1

LSU Accessibility Acknowledgment

1

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Available for download on Tuesday, August 01, 2028

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