Minority Stressors and Protective Factors of LGBTQ+ People During COVID-19 Pandemic
This project was awarded the Mary Bywater Cross and Robert P. Newman Research Award by the University of Iowa College of Education in 2024.
In May 2021, during early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Korea, a news outlet publicly identified a COVID-19 patient as a “gay man” who visited gay clubs in Itaewon, disclosing personal details. This led to significant online hate against the LGBTQ+ community, heightening fear of contracting COVID-19 within this group. Using the Minority Stress Model (Meyer, 2003)1, this project investigates how minority stressors, such as the perceived threat of COVID-19, affect contextual factors like internalized stigma and contribute to mental health outcomes among LGBTQ+ people. Also, I aim to examine the moderating role of protective factors, such as community connectedness, in these relationships.
I will use data from the 2021 Youth LGBTQ+ People’s Social Needs and Status Survey (Jeong et al., 2021)2, which surveyed 3,911 LGBTQ+ people aged 19-34 in South Korea. For analysis, I will use SPSS 27.0, Mplus, and R to test the mediating effects of minority stressors and the moderating effects of protective factors.
- Im, G. (2024, July 19). Relationships between perceived threat of COVID-19, internalized stigma, and depression among LGB people: Focusing on the moderating effects of community connectedness. Paper presented at the 1st Conference of Junior Scholars Network of LGBTIQ Research, Seoul, South Korea.
Footnotes
Meyer, I. H. (2003). Prejudice, social stress, and mental health in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: Conceptual issues and research evidence. Psychological Bulletin, 129(5), 674-697.↩︎
Jeong, S., Kim, B., Shim, K., & Han, S. (2021). 2021 youth LGBTQ+ people’s social needs and status survey. Dawoom: Together for Change.↩︎