Age Differences in Sexual Minority Stress and the Importance of Friendship in Later Life

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objectives This study examined whether younger and middle-aged and older sexual minorities (YSM, MAOSM) experience minority stress differently in relation to social support and depressive symptomatology. Methods Cross-sectional data from 238 sexual minorities (18–80; M = 40.93) comprised the sample, who were strategically separated into cohorts. Group difference and regression methods were used to examine differences in minority stress between groups and the relationships between minority stress-social support-depressive symptomatology within groups. Results MAOSM had greater outness and lower IH. Additionally, outness and IH were the best predictors for the MAOSM and YSM group, respectively. MAOSM indicated better adaption to minority stresses, highlighting the importance of friend support as a protective mechanism Conclusions The minority stress-depressive symptomatology is mitigated by friend support in MAOSM. Clinical Implications OSM and YSM demonstrate different susceptibility of minority stress on depressive symptomatology, with outness being a stronger indicator in MAOSM and IH being a stronger predictor in YSM. Social support does not work uniformly in different cohorts; however, multiple sources (i.e., family, friends) should be discussed with clients. Clinicians should treat cohort as one of the defining features of a sexual minority’s lifelong experience with minority stress.