Book Description

Evidence suggests that members of divergent cultural minority groups often experience disproportionate amounts of psychological distress as compared to the general white population. The double jeopardy hypothesis posits that as a result of occupying two marginalized statuses, the combined effects of racial/ethnic and sexual minority group memberships lead to greater negative consequences than occupying one status independently (Greene, 1994). Minority stress theory is a theoretical framework that can be used to understand the accumulative distress experienced as a double minority. However, minority stress has not been thoroughly researched with the treatment-seeking college student population. Many colleges and universities have reported significant increases in students utilization of counseling services (Byrd & McKinney, 2012), the severity of symptoms (Drum, Brownson, Denmark, & Smith, 2009) and the length of treatment (Tosevski, Milovancevic, & Gajic, 2010). Furthermore, the difficulty of transitioning to college and navigating the self-exploration process may evoke even more distress for questioning-identified students of color because of the complexity associated with negotiating the multiple aspects of their identity. Though, while evidence suggests that this population is at increased risk of negative psychological outcomes, there is limited to no research on this plight. Additionally, the research has not begun to examine the absence of a proximal stressor, such as social support, which might effectively buffer the psychological distress experienced by this population. The current research addressed the following research questions: (1) Do racial/ethnic minority students experience more distress than white students? (2) Do sexual minority students (LGBQ) experience more distress than heterosexual students? (3) Do those with a double minority identity experience more distress than those with a single minority identity? (4) How does the stability of ones sexual identity influence the amount of distress experienced? (5) Is the relationship between social support and psychological distress moderated by ones questioning status? (6) For double minorities, is the relationship between social support and distress moderated by ones questioning status? Results indicated that racial/ethnic minorities and sexual minorities evidenced more overall distress. Most findings evidenced small to moderate effects. Further, support for double minority stress was mixed. Double minorities did not evidence more distress than non-double minorities in most cases. Future research should develop more nuanced methodologies for examining treatment-seeking double minority college students.