Family Religiosity, Support, and Psychological Well-Being for Sexual Minority Atheist Individuals

Prior research has demonstrated that family support is an important predictor of mental health outcomes among sexual minority (LGBQ) people, especially in the context of religious families; however, no studies have examined the experiences of LGBQ people who identify as atheist. With a sample of 234 LGBQ atheist individuals from the United States, the associations of family religiosity and years identifying as atheist with family support, life satisfaction, and psychological distress were tested. Moreover, family support was tested as a mediator of the associations between family religiosity and years identifying as atheist with the mental health outcomes. Consistent with expectation, bivariate correlations indicated that family religiosity was associated with lower family support, and both these variables were associated with poorer mental health. Longevity of atheist identification was associated with better mental health outcomes. Mediation analyses indicated that family support mediated the negative indirect relation of family religiosity with life satisfaction and the positive indirect relation of family religiosity with psychological distress. However, indirect relations of years identifying as atheist with the mental health outcomes through family support were nonsignificant. The implications of these findings for future research are discussed.