Abstract
Nowadays, as the topic of homosexuality becomes more public, mental health of homosexuals gains more and more attention. Scholars paid close attention to the impact of social prejudice on gay men and lesbians’ mental health, and they posited that homosexuals have high prevalence of mental disorders. Internalized homophobia refers to the gay person’s direction of negative social attitudes toward the self. It stems from social prejudice, and it reflects the degree to which a gay man internalized anti-homosexual sentiments of heterosexual society. So it is rooted in culture and it isn’t a personal trait. Minority stress model posits that internalized homophobia is an inner stressor which requires individuals to mobilize all kinds of resources to adapt, so it is a significant predictor of one's mental health, and there exists many factors which play the mediating role between them. However, there were still some limitations in previous researches. Firstly, no study explored the impact of Chinese culture on young gay men's internalized homophobia; Secondly, researches about the relations between internalized homophobia and positive psychological adaption were limited; At last, it is necessary to understand gay men's mental health from more general psychological process. This research is aimed at achieving three goals: (1) Explore the level of Chinese young gay men’s internalized homophobia. (2)Investigate the relations between internalized homophobia and subjective well-being. (3)Examine self-esteem and loneliness’s mediating roles between internalized homophobia and subjective well-being.
A total of web-based sample of 249 young gay men were enrolled. They were 16-30 years old and all of them were the generation after 80s or 90s. Internalized homophobia was assessed with Internalized Homophobia Scale (for male respondents), this research indicated that Chinese version of IHP has acceptable reliability and validity. It consists of 8 items. Each item is administered with 1-5 point ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Self-esteem was examined by the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale which comprises 10 items. Loneliness was assessed with UCLA Loneliness Scale (the third version) which consists of 20 statements. Subjective well-being was rated by Affect Balance Scale and Life Satisfaction Scale. They comprise 20 items and 5 items respectively.
The results indicated that: (1)The degree of Chinese young gay men internalized homophobia was a litter lower than moderate level, and a large proportion of young gay men had no internalized homophobia;(2) Internalized homophobia was negatively correlated with positive affect and life satisfaction, and it was positively correlated with negative affect; (3) Self-esteem and loneliness played a completely mediating role in the relations between internalized homophobia and subjective well-being; (4)Internalized homophobia had an effect on loneliness through self-esteem, and it also had an effect on subjective well-being through loneliness.
These findings highlight that young gay men doesn’t necessarily exist high mental disorders, and they remind us that there exists some common psychological mechanisms between homosexuals and the average people. Moreover, much can be done to improve young gay men’s subjective well-being from the perspective of attitudes toward their own sexual orientation, and general psychological process such as self-esteem and loneliness should also be considered. The present study contributes to promote our understanding of psychological characteristics of Chinese young gay men, and it is beneficial to improve young gay men’s mental health.
Key words
young gay men /
internalized homophobia /
subjective well-being /
self-esteem /
loneliness
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Internalized Homophobia and Subjective Well-being among Young Gay Men: The Mediating Effect of Self-esteem and Loneliness[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2014, 37(5): 1204-1211
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