Social inequality and well-being: Race-related stress, gay-related stress, self-esteem, and life satisfaction among African American gay and bisexual men

Psychologists and other social scientists have developed an increasing interest in understanding the relationship between discrimination, social inequality, and psychological health. Studies have shown that the stressful experiences of racism, or race-related stress, are correlated with many psychological outcomes, such as lowered life satisfaction, low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, poor self-concept, and negative psychological states (Utsey et al., 2000; Utsey & Payne, 2000; Contrada, 2000). Similarly, researchers have argued that gay men and lesbians may be at increased risk for psychological distress because of exposure to gay-related stressors (DiPlacido, 1998; Meyer, 1995; Rosario et al., 1996; Gonsiorek and Rudolph, 1991; Lewis et al., 2003). Yet, despite the more recent interest in studying the impact of gay-related stress among sexual minorities, and the ongoing body of research on race-related stress among racial minorities, relatively little attention has specifically been given to the intersection of these two communities, namely being gay and of color.; The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationships among race-related stress, gay-related stress, self-esteem, and life satisfaction among a sample of African American gay and bisexual men. It was hypothesized that race-related stress and gay-related stress would be individually and significantly related to self-esteem and life satisfaction and that the combined effect of race-related stress and gay-related stress would account for significantly more variance in the relationship than each individually. Participants were 179 gay, bisexual or straight (reporting same sex sexual activity) identified African American men recruited from multiple venues in New York City. The results of a series of hierarchical regression analyses provided support for one of the three hypotheses, namely, that higher amounts of gay-related stress were associated with lower self-esteem and life satisfaction after controlling for income. The same was not found to be true for race-related stress or the combined effect of both race-related and gay-related stress. Implications of the findings for the field of counseling psychology, along with suggestions for future research, are discussed.