Psychological Quality of Life in a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Sample: Correlates of Stress, Mindful Acceptance, and Self-Esteem

Because of a history of marginalization, lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience stress associated with their minority status (Meyer, 2003), which may threaten self-esteem (Herek, Gillis, & Cogan, 2009) and psychological quality of life (Radkowsky & Siegel, 1997). Mindful attention and self-esteem are associated with increased mental health (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011); however, these constructs have not been studied together in a sample of LGBT people. We hypothesized that mindful acceptance and self-esteem explain a significant proportion of variance in psychological quality of life of LGBT individuals, and that the relationship between stress and psychological quality of life is moderated by mindful attention & self-esteem. We recruited 177 participants from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and performed both a linear regression analysis and two moderation analyses to test our hypotheses. Controlling for age and years of education, we found that mindful acceptance and self-esteem accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in psychological quality of life (adj. R-2 = .56, p = .02). Moderation analyses revealed that both mindful acceptance (beta = -.17, p < .01) and self-esteem (beta = .47, p < .01) moderate the relationship between stress and psychological quality of life. Our findings suggest that clinicians should consider the relationship between mindful acceptance, self-esteem, and stress when addressing the psychological quality of life of sexual and gender minorities. Future research should further examine positive psychological constructs of members of the LGBT communities in effort to address LGBT quality of life.