Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms in Sexual Minority Latinx Youth: Moderation by Religious Importance and Attendance

Relative to heterosexual peers, sexual minority youth experience significant mental health disparities. This is partly due to prejudicial encounters (e.g., discrimination, victimization) because of their sexual minority status, and potential intersecting and compounding prejudicial experiences related to their ethnic minority status. However, even though religiosity has been identified as a protective factor in the general literature and may be especially relevant for youth in Latinx families, few studies have examined whether religiosity serves as a buffer of the relations between discrimination-related stress and mental health in sexual minority Latinx youth. Thus, the aims were to examine (a) whether ethnic and sexuality discrimination have additive or multiplicative effects on depressive symptoms, and (b) whether own or family religiosity (defined by religious importance and attendance) moderates the relations between discrimination and depressive symptoms. Sample included 377 youth (M-age = 20.29, SD = 2.61, age range 14-24). Results did not support an interaction between ethnic and sexuality discrimination, nor between own religiosity and ethnic discrimination, in predicting depressive symptoms. There were significant interactions between family religiosity and discrimination (ethnic and sexuality), in which family religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at average and low levels of discrimination. There was a significant interaction between own religiosity and sexuality discrimination, in which own religiosity was negatively associated with depressive symptoms only at the low level of sexuality discrimination. Findings highlight the importance of examining the intersection of religion, sexuality, and Latinx minority status in relation to mental health outcome.