| Past research has examined the impact of single forms of discrimination such as racism, sexism, and homophobia on psychological well-being (Fingerhut, Peplau, and Ghavami, 2005; Meyer, 2003; Lewis, Derlega, Brown, Rose, and Henson, 2009). Few studies have examined the impact of multiple forms of discrimination on psychological well-being. This quantitative study explored the effect of both internal discrimination and external discriminatory events on the psychological well-being and self-esteem of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ), Black women. Participants were a predominantly middle class, highly-educated sample of 202 LGBQ, Black women between the ages of 18 and 77. Beverly Greene's (2000) theory on triple jeopardy was used as a theoretical framework. Participants completed measures of internal discrimination, external discriminatory events, psychological distress, and self-esteem.;Results suggested that when examined separately, higher levels of internalized discrimination (racism, sexism, and homophobia) were related to higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of self-esteem. Furthermore, when examined separately, higher levels of external discriminatory events were related to higher levels of psychological distress and lower levels of self-esteem. When internal and external forms of discrimination were examined concurrently, internalized sexism and racist discriminatory events were the only two unique predictors of Black LGBQ women's psychological distress. Moreover, when internalized and external forms of discrimination were examined concurrently, internalized racism and internalized homophobia were the only two unique predictors of Black LGBQ women's self-esteem. Implications for future research and practice are discussed. |
