Concealable Stigmas: Factors that Influence Internalized Shame
Open Access
- Author:
- Patishnock, Mark Franklin
- Graduate Program:
- Counseling Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 09, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Kathleen Bieschke, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kathleen Bieschke, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Susan Woodhouse, Ph D, Committee Member
Joyce Karen Illfelder Kaye, Committee Member
Robert Leslie Hale, Committee Member - Keywords:
- GLB
sexual orientation outness
gay
LGB
attachment avoidance
attachment anxiety
perceived social support
heterosexism
internalized heterosexism
concealable stigmas
sexual minority
bisexual
outness - Abstract:
- The concealable stigma of having a minority sexual orientation was the focus of this study. Specifically, the constructs of attachment (i.e., attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance) and perceived social support (i.e., family perceived social support and friend perceived social support) were examined as predictors of internalized heterosexism (IH). Perceived social support was also examined as a mediator of the relation between attachment and IH. The participants were 124 gay and bisexual men, 18 to 25 years old who were enrolled in an institution of higher education. Results indicated that attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, family perceived social support and friend perceived social support were all significant, yet modest predictors of IH, accounting for a small proportion of the variance in IH. Mediation analyses showed that neither family perceived social support nor friend perceived social support mediated the relations between attachment anxiety and IH or attachment avoidance and IH. Post-hoc analyses documented that sexual orientation outness accounted for a large proportion of the variance in IH (17.6%), and mediated the relation between attachment avoidance and IH, suggesting that attachment avoidance may serve as a protective factor against internalized shame (i.e., IH). Sexual orientation outness did not mediate the relation between attachment anxiety and IH, nor did it moderate the relations between attachment anxiety and IH or attachment avoidance and IH.