Minority sexual orientation identification is linked to greater cortisol responses to stress

Abstract

Most theories of stress and health posit that chronic stressor exposure detrimentally affects stress response systems, which in turn confers vulnerability to poor health. Supporting this, stressor exposure in general and discrimination in particular predict blunted stress responses. However, emerging work has differentially linked specific stressors to health, and to date no study has examined how sexual orientation minority identification—which, unlike some forms of discrimination, often leads to social rejection from one’s family—relates to stress responses. Participants reported sexual orientation in demographics at study onset. Saliva samples were collected both pre- and post-manipulation offset, from which cortisol was assayed. This is a secondary analysis of four studies using either the cold pressor or Trier Social Stress Test; study was covaried. Sexual orientation predicted distinct cortisol responses. Nonheterosexual participants did not differ from heterosexual participants in the control condition at baseline or post-control task, nor did they differ at baseline in the stress condition; however, nonheterosexual participants showed higher cortisol levels post-manipulation in the stress condition than heterosexual participants. Although all nonheterosexual participants showed numerically stronger cortisol responses than heterosexual participants, homosexual participants showed the strongest response. Contrary to what might have been expected, we found that sexual orientation minority identification was related to greater stress-induced cortisol responses. These results suggest that additional research on stress physiology in sexual orientation minority individuals may be important for understanding sexual orientation-related discrimination and its effects on mental and physical health.