Minority Stress in Daily Life and its Effect on Mental Health in LGBTQ+ Youth
Method Stream: Longitudinal Intensive Methods
ECs: Both 14 and 23 EC thesis possible
Description:
Up to 10% of young people between 16 and 27 identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex (LGBTQ+). Young LGBTQ+ people are likely to experience minority stress due to discrimination or internalization of queerphobic ideas, which have become more prevalent over the last years (Welzijnsmonitor LHBTIQA+ Gelderland en Overijssel, 2023). This may explain why many young LGBTQ+ people report poor mental health.
The PROUT project aims to design and implement digital interventions that improve mental health and promote psychological resilience among LGBTQI+ youth. To design these interventions, we need to know more about the interaction between minority stress and mental health in this group.
In this thesis, you will be able to work with an existing ESM dataset which monitored daily minority stress, mental health, and wellbeing in a sample of 32 LGBTQI+ youth. Possible research questions include examining the interaction between overall mental health and daily symptoms in relation to minority stress, identifying possible trajectories of minority stress’ impact on mental health, or exploring which factors help build resilience against minority stress. For students with 23 EC theses there is opportunity to extent the project with additional data collection (for example, a mixed-method study).