TY - JOUR
T1 - A preliminary investigation of worry content in sexual minorities
AU - Weiss, Brandon J.
AU - Hope, Debra A.
N1 - Funding Information:
The project described was supported in part by a grant to the second author from the Wayne F. Placek Fund of the American Psychological Foundation . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the American Psychological Foundation. The authors would like to thank Luis Felipe Morales-Knight, J. Suzanne Singh, Timothy Emge, and Milena Stoyanova for assistance with data collection and Mallory Millard and Abigail Lien for help with data coding. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Portions of this work were presented at the 2010 convention for the World Congress of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Boston, MA, and the 2010 convention for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, New Orleans, LA.
PY - 2011/3
Y1 - 2011/3
N2 - This preliminary study examined the nature of worry content of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals and the relationship between worry related to sexual orientation and mental health. A community sample of 54 individuals identifying as sexual minorities was recruited from two cities in the Great Plains to complete a packet of questionnaires, including a modified Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992) with additional items constructed to assess worry over discrimination related to sexual orientation, and participate in a worry induction and verbalization task. The content of self-reported worries was consistent with those reported in prior investigations of worry content, and worry related to sexual orientation was not found to be elevated compared to other topics. However, degree of worry related to sexual orientation was significantly associated with increased negative affect, depressive symptoms, and internalized homophobia and decreased quality of life and positive affect. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research issues are discussed.
AB - This preliminary study examined the nature of worry content of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual individuals and the relationship between worry related to sexual orientation and mental health. A community sample of 54 individuals identifying as sexual minorities was recruited from two cities in the Great Plains to complete a packet of questionnaires, including a modified Worry Domains Questionnaire (WDQ; Tallis, Eysenck, & Mathews, 1992) with additional items constructed to assess worry over discrimination related to sexual orientation, and participate in a worry induction and verbalization task. The content of self-reported worries was consistent with those reported in prior investigations of worry content, and worry related to sexual orientation was not found to be elevated compared to other topics. However, degree of worry related to sexual orientation was significantly associated with increased negative affect, depressive symptoms, and internalized homophobia and decreased quality of life and positive affect. Implications of these findings, limitations, and future research issues are discussed.
KW - Mental health
KW - Sexual orientation
KW - Worry
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U2 - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.09.009
DO - 10.1016/j.janxdis.2010.09.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 21041061
AN - SCOPUS:79151474883
SN - 0887-6185
VL - 25
SP - 244
EP - 250
JO - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
JF - Journal of Anxiety Disorders
IS - 2
ER -