An online support group intervention for Asian American lesbian and bisexual women

Abstract

The present study used a latent growth curve modeling approach to examine the effectiveness of online support group intervention on depressive symptoms and life satisfaction over time. A total of 83 Asian American lesbian and bisexual women were randomly assigned to participate in either a four-week online support group intervention or a no-intervention control group. Participation in the online support group intervention was found to predict higher levels of life satisfaction at post-intervention and those levels were maintained over the follow-up period. No differences were found for level or rate of change for depressive symptoms. Three exploratory moderators were tested for the relations between internalized homophobia or ethnic identity and depressive symptoms or life satisfaction over time. The first moderator was group condition. For depressive symptoms, group condition failed to be a significant moderator of either ethnic identity or internalized homophobia on depressive symptoms at the post-intervention and over time. When internalized homophobia is low, the mean levels of life satisfaction at post-intervention were similar between two groups, but life satisfaction significantly increased over the one-month follow-up period only for support group participants. The second moderator was perceived support from the online group. Perceived support failed to be a significant moderator of internalized homophobia on depressive symptoms or life satisfaction at the post-intervention and over time. However, ethnic identity was found to interact with perceived support. For depressive symptoms, when ethnic identity is high and support is high, participants reported the highest levels of depressive symptoms at post-intervention and over the follow-up period. Conversely, those with low ethnic identity