When society is not safe: impact of chronic minority stress on threat responsivity and threat-related decision making in the LGBTQIA+ community

Abstract

Members of the LGBTQIA+ community experience disproportionate rates of mental healthconcerns, such as anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression, while also being at heightened risk of stigma, rejection, and violence. Under the minority stress model, societally-imposed stressors, such as stigma, discrimination, and hate-motivated violence, as well and internalized responses to those stressors, increase risk of physical and mental health concerns for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. A number of minority stressors, including hate-motivated violence, lack of social support, and heightened vigilance for threat due to occupying a marginalized identity, have strong theoretical overlap with basic threat learning and threat responding processes. However, to-date, no published research studies have leveraged fear conditioning or threat responsivity measurement tools to better understand basic changes to threat learning and responding that minority stress experiences may prompt. This dissertation examines the impact of minority stress experiences on several threat learning and threat responding outcomes, in a group of LGBTQIA+ participants. Findings and their implications are discussed.