The Integrative/Psychological Mediation Framework of Minority Stress in Asexual-Spectrum Individuals

Resumen de los autores

Research suggests that prejudice events are associated with negative mental health outcomes in asexual-spectrum individuals, but little work has examined the roles of general and asexual-specific psychological processes in these relationships. We investigated indirect associations between minority stressors and psychological distress as a first test of the Integrative/Psychological Mediation Framework of Minority Stress in asexual-spectrum people. We recruited n=261 asexual-spectrum individuals (n=49 men, n=128 women, n=83 another gender) to complete an online cross-sectional survey including measures of acephobic discrimination, outness-as-asexual (identity disclosure), internalized acephobia, rumination, expressive suppression, cognitive reappraisal, and psychological distress (anxiety/depression). We performed statistical mediation analysis, using PROCESS (5,000 percentile bootstraps) to generate 95% confidence intervals to test paths from discrimination and outness to distress via internalized acephobia, rumination, suppression, and reappraisal. We also tested the path from outness to distress via discrimination. All analyses controlled for gender and age. We found significant indirect effects from outness to distress via internalized acephobia, ab=−.05, 95% CI [−.10, −.01], from outness to distress via suppression, ab=−.05, 95% CI [−.09, −.01], from discrimination to distress via internalized acephobia, ab=.06, 95% CI [.02, .11], and from discrimination to distress via suppression, ab=.03, 95% CI [.005, .07]. These relationships held in a path analysis model, including all significant indirect effects. All other indirect effects were non-significant. Results show that the Integrative/Psychological Mediation Framework is promising for understanding the link between minority stressors and mental health in asexual-spectrum people. Clinical and public health interventions could potentially be tailored to asexual individuals using this framework.

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Cómo citar (APA 7)

McKellar, N., Steinberg, G., & Timmins, L. (2026). The Integrative/Psychological Mediation Framework of Minority Stress in Asexual-Spectrum Individuals. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zh3p9_v1