Promoting a sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ people can reduce health problems

June is Pride Month, an excellent opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the many strides the LGBTQ+ community has made in American society over the past few decades.

That said, stigmas still persist, causing LGBTQ+ people to experience significant stress and leading to more physical and mental health problems than cisgender heterosexuals. For Jes Matsick, associate professor of psychology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies, and several Penn State colleagues, the topic served as the impetus for a review article recently published in the journal Nature Reviews Psychology.

Matsick and co-authors Jonathan Cook, associate professor of psychology, psychology students Jude Sullivan and Emerson Todd, and PhD alumna Mary Kruk examined conditions that allow LGBTQ+ people to thrive, specifically finding that a sense of belonging can be effective reduce their various health problems.

The researchers summarize factors found in the psychological, public health, and public policy literature that contribute to a sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ people at the individual, interpersonal, community, and societal levels.

“Our multifaceted approach,” they wrote, “encourages the flourishing of LGBTQ+ people as individuals while addressing structural forces that shape their psychosocial well-being.”

Matsick, head of the university’s Underrepresented Perspectives Lab, recently discussed some of the group’s findings.

How did the idea for the article come about?

I was invited to contribute a review article on the psychological experiences of LGBTQ+ people. There has been a lot of research into the challenges LGBTQ+ face, and while we believe this work is important in exposing stigma – for example homophobia, transphobia, racism – we wanted to show how LGBTQ+ can thrive too.

One way to do that is to think about their sense of belonging and ways to strengthen their connection. Furthermore, we didn’t want to place the onus of belonging on LGBTQ+ people themselves, so we took a multi-level approach to think about how individuals, communities and societies can interactively increase the sense of belonging for LGBTQ+ people .

What interested you in the concept of belonging to the LGBTQ+ community, and how did it fit within your broader research interests?

Belonging has always interested me because it is such a fragile yet powerful psychological state. The need to belong is a basic human need. It varies from moment to moment and place to place, and it has a huge impact on our overall well-being. Much of my research focuses on strengthening people’s sense of belonging, and I particularly focus on people who often receive messages that they do not belong, based on gender, sexual orientation, race, body type, etc. This overview article provides space so that we can assess our own work alongside that of others. It contains almost 300 references.

What were some of the key insights in terms of the relationship between sense of belonging and better mental and physical health outcomes for LGBTQ+ people?

One of the key insights from our article is that efforts to improve belonging for LGBTQ+ people work best when we focus on multiple levels that influence people’s psychological connectedness. For example, creating and protecting LGBTQ+ friendly community spaces is a great idea, but we also need to pay attention to the dynamics and tensions within people’s households and families.

While it is useful to intervene within schools and workplaces to strengthen the belonging of LGBTQ+ students and employees, we must also advocate for higher-level laws and policies. Our goal is to encourage a multi-level approach to increasing feelings of belonging – one that promotes the flourishing of LGBTQ+ people as individuals while critically addressing the structural forces that contribute to belonging.

Belonging can also positively contribute to physical health. Overall, LGBTQ+ people can feel a sense of belonging, less stress, and stress is known to lead to chronic health problems like cardiovascular disease and inflammation. More work is needed in this area, but we suggest that belonging may be a promising mechanism for both psychological and physical health.

It is also worth noting that a sense of belonging within the healthcare context can be particularly important for building relationships between LGBTQ+ people and healthcare professionals to ensure preventive, routine, and better quality healthcare for LGBTQ+ people.

What are some specific ways LGBTQ+ people can feel more like they belong?

We have included a large table in our article to summarize what can be done to improve connectedness. For example, at the individual level, the literature suggests that coming out (or revealing one’s identity) to support others had a positive impact on the connectedness of LGBTQ+ people.

On an interpersonal level, different types of positive relationships can help people feel a greater sense of belonging, such as having affirming parents, healthy sexual and/or romantic relationships with others, or what we call “chosen family,” who have close relationships. and caring relationships that extend beyond families of origin and, in some ways, provide the love and intimacy that LGBTQ+ individuals may lack from those traditionally considered “family.”

At the community level, LGBTQ+-centered spaces and neighborhoods are positively related to belonging, as is the presence of LGBTQ+ and allyship networks in workplaces and schools, including gay-straight alliances.

At the societal level, protections against discrimination are positively related to belonging, and so are what we call “identity safety signals,” that is, signals within a given situation that signal to LGBTQ+ people that they are safe or valued are in that environment and are unlikely to face stigmatization based on their sexual orientation and gender identity. My lab has published several papers, and more are in the works, on how safety signals help increase LGBTQ+ people’s sense of belonging in different environments.

You have assembled a group of Penn State affiliates for the project. Why was that important to you?

Our team of authors represents researchers from across academic ranks, racial and ethnic identities, sexual orientations, gender identities, and generations. The diversity within my research team is a great strength. We each brought unique insights to the work, based on our interests, expertise and different life experiences. It was also the first of hopefully many opportunities that I will collaborate with my friend and Penn State colleague Dr. Jonathan Cook. He brings a lot of expertise in thinking about interventions and issues surrounding identity disclosure and concealment.

Furthermore, as a mentor, I was eager to give two of my co-authors—Emerson Todd and Jude Sullivan, PhD students in psychology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies—the first opportunity to write and contribute to such a high-profile initiative. impact magazine article.

I am a very hands-on advisor and I wanted them to be actively involved in reading and writing this article. I assigned each of them to a smaller section of the paper that the team had sketched together. We exchanged drafts of sections, incorporated edits and comments, and followed similar procedures in the journal revision process as well. Overall, it was an effective learning opportunity for my students and rewarding for me to see them gain a better understanding of academic publications through this experience.

Do you plan to do additional research on this topic?

Yes, we have several ongoing projects about belonging. For example, Emerson and I explore the information transgender people rely on to determine where they belong as they navigate different situations. And Jude and I study connectedness among older LGBTQ+ adults, who often struggle with social isolation, loneliness, and various forms of stigma, such as ageism and homophobia.

Overall, my research lab values ​​the power of belonging and we want to understand what can be done to improve this.