Gay male sexual assault survivors: The relations among internalized homophobia, experiential avoidance, and psychological symptom severity

Abstract

This study explored the relations among internalized homophobia (IH), experiential avoidance, and psychological symptom severity in a community sample of 74 gay male sexual assault survivors. Results indicated that IH is associated with both depressive and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. IH accounted for more variance than assault severity in predicting both PTSD and depression symptom severity. IH and experiential avoidance similarly predicted PTSD symptom severity. In comparison with IH, however, experiential avoidance is a stronger predictor of depression symptom severity. Results also showed that experiential avoidance partially mediated the relation between IH and both depressive and PTSD symptom severity. The implications of these findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.