Examining the Moderating Role of Own and Family Religiosity on the Relations Between Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms in Sexual Minority Latinx Youth

Relative to their heterosexual peers, sexual minority youth experience significant mental health disparities. This, in part, is due to prejudicial encounters (e.g., discrimination, victimization) because of their sexual minority status, and potential compounding stressors from prejudicial experiences related to their ethnic minority status, which could lead to worse mental health outcomes due to intersecting minority stress processes. Surprisingly, even though religiosity has been identified as a protective factor in the general literature for adolescents and young adults, few studies have examined whether religiosity serves as a potential buffer of the relations between stress and mental health outcomes in sexual minority Latinx youth. Thus, the goals of this study were to examine: (1) whether ethnic discrimination and sexuality discrimination have additive or interactive effects on depressive symptoms, and (2) whether self or family religiosity moderate the relations between discrimination and depressive symptoms, in a sample of 377 sexual minority Latinx youth (Mage = 20.29, SD = 2.61, age range 14-24). Results showed that there was no interactive effect between ethnic discrimination and sexuality discrimination in predicting depressive symptoms. There was a significant interaction between own religiosity and sexuality discrimination in predicting depressive symptoms, in which own religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at low level of sexuality discrimination. No significant interaction emerged between own religiosity and ethnic discrimination. Finally, there were significant interactive effects between family religiosity and discrimination (ethnic and sexuality), in which family religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at average and low level of discrimination. These findings highlight the importance of examining the intersection of religion, sexuality, and Latinx minority status in relation to mental health outcome.