Latinx LGBTQ Youth, COVID-19, and Psychological Well-Being: A Systematic Review.

OBJECTIVE: As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Latinx youth report high rates of negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety and depression. Similarly, research with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth have documented increased negative mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the current literature has yet to systematically uncover the intersectional experiences of Latinx LGBTQ youth during this time. METHOD: We conducted a systematic review to uncover the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ youth during the pandemic. Our systematic review resulted in 14 empirical studies that explored the challenges, stressors, and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Latinx LGBTQ youth. RESULTS: Findings revealed that most studies include cisgender, gender binary, heterosexual, Latinx youth. Findings across studies include: (a) impact from school closures, (b) pandemic stressors, (c) impact from online media, (d) family and Latinx cultural values as a source of support and stress, and (e) the implementation and evaluation of interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic. DISCUSSION: We provide recommendations for clinicians working with Latinx LGBTQ youth including expanding their knowledge about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these communities, considering the experiences of Latinx LGBTQ youth as multifaceted, and considering the role of heterogeneity in the mental health of Latinx LGBTQ Youth.

Ethnic identity and resilience: a moderated mediation analysis of protective factors for self-blame and racial microaggressions.

Introduction: People of Color (PoC) in the United States encounter everyday racial microaggressions, and these commonplace experiences can wear and exhaust PoC's resources. Racial microaggressions have shown detrimental effects on physical and psychological well-being. Consequently, researchers have examined and tested different ways in which PoC cope and protect themselves from these everyday exchanges. Past findings have indicated that PoC might blame themselves for racism-related occurrences to cope with these commonplace discriminatory experiences. Ethnic identity and resilience have emerged in research as protective factors that can moderate and buffer the impact of racism on PoC's well-being. We used a combination of mediation, moderation, and conditional analyses to unpack the relationships between racial microaggression (predictor), psychological distress (outcome), self-blame (mediator), resilience (moderator), and ethnic identity (moderator). Methods: This study used a cross-sectional design and sampled 696 PoC regarding their experiences and responses to racial microaggressions. We tested the association between psychological distress and racial microaggressions and further examined whether self-blame mediated the relationship. We also tested ethnic identity and resilience as moderators and used a conditional analysis to determine whether these protective factors moderated the mediation model. Results: Findings from the mediation, moderation, and conditional analyses supported our four hypotheses: (H1) self-blame mediated the relation between racial microaggressions and psychological distress (mediation), (H2) ethnic identity moderated the association between racial microaggressions and self-blame but only at low and average levels (moderation), (H3) resilience moderated the relation between self-blame and psychological distress but only at low and average levels (moderation), and (H4) evidence of moderated mediation were found for all five variables (conditional). While statistically significant, most moderation effects were minimal to small. Conclusion: PoC may engage in self-blame when experiencing racial microaggressions, which explains why these everyday, commonplace occurrences might lead to psychological distress. There was evidence that ethnic identity and resilience can protect PoC from the negative effects of racial microaggressions. These buffering effects, however, only emerged for PoC endorsing high levels of ethnic identity and resilience, and it should be noted that for most participants, the link between racial microaggressions and psychological distress was still significant. Future studies might need to explore additional individual and interpersonal alongside institutional factors that can protect PoC from racism-related harms.

Intersectional microaggressions, depressive symptoms, and the role of LGBTQ-specific parental support in a sample of Latinx sexual and gender minority youth.

INTRODUCTION: Latinx and sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth experience higher incidents of racism, cissexism, and heterosexism in the forms of overt discrimination and microaggressions. These experiences could in part explain increased negative mental health outcomes, such as depressive symptoms. Evidence points to the possibility that LGBTQ-specific parental support buffers the effects of intersectional microaggressions on depressive symptoms among Latinx SGM youth. METHODS: In a sample of 1292 Latinx SGM youth (ages 13-17), we assessed: a) the association between LGBTQ-specific parental support and depressive symptoms, b) the associations between three forms of intersectional microaggressions and depressive symptoms, and c) whether parental LGBTQ-specific parental support moderated the relationship between three forms of intersectional microaggressions and depressive symptoms. Main effect and moderation analyses examined interactions between LGBTQ-specific parental support with each of the three forms of intersectional microaggressions on depressive symptoms. RESULTS: We found that Latinx transgender youth experienced higher intersectional microaggressions compared to their cisgender counterparts and that Latinx SGM youth who reported lower LGBTQ-specific parental support experienced higher depressive symptoms. We also identified a significant interaction between intersectional microaggressions and LGBTQ-specific parental support, suggesting that parental support was more protective at low rather than high levels of intersectional microaggressions. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest a need for future work examining culturally appropriate approaches to foster a supportive parent-child relationship among Latinx SGM youth and their parental figures.