Internalized Homophobia, Attributions of Blame, and Psychological Distress Among Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Trauma Victims

Résumé du livre

Previous research has documented high rates of violence aimed at the Lesbian. Gay. and Bisexual (LGB) individuals. A small number of studies have also investigated the psychological repercussions of this abuse. The current study expands the literature in this area by (a) examining the prevalence of traumatic experiences among a sample of self-identified LGB women and men. (b) documenting rates of PTSD and depressive symptoms, and (c) analyzing variables that predict psychological distress. Three hundred thirty nine participants (137 women and 202 men) completed a self-report questionnaire. This instrument included a detailed trauma history survey and measures of internalized homophobia, victim blame, self-blame. PTSD. and depression. A high rate of trauma exposure (94.4%) was reported by the sample. Over 40% of the participants experienced a traumatic event due to their sexual orientation: a statistically significant proportion of respondents were also targets of harassing incidents because they are lesbian, gay. or bisexual. High levels o f depressive symptoms and PTSD were reported. Internalized homophobia and self-blame were predictive of depression for victims of bias and non-bias incidents, but internalized homophobia contributed to PTSD scores only among homophobic bias victims. Victim blame was not a statistically significant predictor of distress. Theoretical and clinical implications of these results are presented and directions for future research are discussed.