title: Minority Stress and Stress Proliferation Among Same-Sex and Other Marginalized Couples.
abstract: Drawing from 2 largely isolated approaches to the study of social stress-stress proliferation and minority stress-the authors theorize about stress and mental health among same-sex couples. With this integrated stress framework, they hypothesized that couple-level minority stressors may be experienced by individual partners and jointly by couples as a result of the stigmatized status of their same-sex relationship-a novel concept. They also consider dyadic minority stress processes, which result from the relational experience of individual-level minority stressors between partners. Because this framework includes stressors emanating from both status- (e.g., sexual minority) and role-based (e.g., partner) stress domains, it facilitates the study of stress proliferation linking minority stress (e.g., discrimination), more commonly experienced relational stress (e.g., conflict), and mental health. This framework can be applied to the study of stress and health among other marginalized couples, such as interracial/ethnic, interfaith, and age-discrepant couples.
authors: Sociology/Health Equity Institute, 1600 Holloway Ave., HSS 359, San Francisco, CA 94132.
authors: Allen J
authors: AJ
authors: LeBlanc
authors: Department of Population and Family Health, Columbia University, 60 Haven Ave., B2, New York, NY 10032.
authors: David M
authors: DM
authors: Frost
authors: UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences, 650 Charles E. Young Dr. South, 36-071 CHS, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772.
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Wight
keywords: bisexual mental health; dyadic/couple data; gay; lesbian; stress coping and/or resiliency; theory construction