Date of Award:

5-2022

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department:

Psychology

Committee Chair(s)

Tyler Renshaw

Committee

Tyler Renshaw

Committee

Maryellen McClain Verdoes

Committee

Tyler Lefevor

Committee

Gretchen Peacock

Committee

Terisa Gabrielsen

Abstract

Taken together, the three papers included in this dissertation offer an investigation of sexual minority adolescents’ stress as a predictor of adverse mental health outcomes (Paper 1), as being influenced by school and home climates (Paper 2), and as a measurable model for stress across levels (Paper 3). Results from this series of studies generally support theory and findings from other studies in that minority stress was found to be a meaningful predictor of mental health in sexual minority youth and that school and home climates were found to be important for understanding sexual minority youth wellbeing. However, the current set of papers went beyond confirming past research and offered new contributions to the literature by identifying differences in the levels at which minority stress’ predicts mental health (Paper 1), showing how school and home climates both influence sexual minority youths’ wellbeing and that school climates offer a better explanation for the wellbeing of sexual minority adolescents (Paper 2), and providing support for the measurement of minority stress for adolescents. Findings from this series of studies may help support the knowledge and measurement necessary for informing mental health providers’ practice to reduce mental health disparities in sexual minority youth.

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