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Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status

Liadh Timmins Orcid Logo, Katharine A. Rimes, Qazi Rahman

Psychological Medicine, Volume: 48, Issue: 10, Pages: 1705 - 1712

Swansea University Author: Liadh Timmins Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1017/s003329171700321x

Abstract

Background: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report higher levels of depression and anxiety than heterosexual people. Genetic factors may be a ‘common cause’ of sexual minority status and psychological distress. Alternatively, these may be correlated because of non-genetic environmental...

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Published in: Psychological Medicine
ISSN: 0033-2917 1469-8978
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2018
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64179
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spelling 2025-08-04T10:49:05.0891238 v2 64179 2023-08-30 Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status 7f227f6f0fc0400bae2893d252d2f5ec 0000-0001-7984-4748 Liadh Timmins Liadh Timmins true false 2023-08-30 PSYS Background: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report higher levels of depression and anxiety than heterosexual people. Genetic factors may be a ‘common cause’ of sexual minority status and psychological distress. Alternatively, these may be correlated because of non-genetic environmental factors (e.g. minority stressors). This study investigated minority stressors and distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status. This design provides a test of the role of non-shared environmental factors while minimizing differences due to genetics. Methods: Thirty-eight twin pairs in which one was heterosexual and the other was LGB completed a survey. Differences between twin pairs in minority stressors, rumination, psychological distress, and gender non-conformity were examined. Associations between these variables were also tested. Results: Although there were no significant group differences for distress, LGB twins had higher rumination, a vulnerability factor for distress, than heterosexual co-twins. LGB twins also had higher scores than heterosexual co-twins on expectations of rejection, active concealment, self-stigma, prejudice events, childhood gender non-conformity, and lower scores on sexual orientation disclosure. Differences between twin pairs in rumination were positively associated with differences in acceptance concerns and self-stigma. Finally, self-stigma was positively associated with rumination in the full sample of heterosexual co-twins and microaggressions were positively associated with rumination when looking at exclusively heterosexual co-twins. Conclusions: These results support environmental factors as a causal explanation for disparities in rumination between LGB and heterosexual individuals. These factors likely include minority stressors. Rumination may also be associated with minority stressors in heterosexual MZ co-twins of LGB individuals. Journal Article Psychological Medicine 48 10 1705 1712 Cambridge University Press (CUP) 0033-2917 1469-8978 Sexual orientation, twins, genetics, distress, rumination, minority stress, non-shared environment 1 7 2018 2018-07-01 10.1017/s003329171700321x http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003329171700321x COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University 2025-08-04T10:49:05.0891238 2023-08-30T14:59:04.0396514 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Liadh Timmins 0000-0001-7984-4748 1 Katharine A. Rimes 2 Qazi Rahman 3
title Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
spellingShingle Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
Liadh Timmins
title_short Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
title_full Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
title_fullStr Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
title_full_unstemmed Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
title_sort Minority stressors, rumination, and psychological distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status
author_id_str_mv 7f227f6f0fc0400bae2893d252d2f5ec
author_id_fullname_str_mv 7f227f6f0fc0400bae2893d252d2f5ec_***_Liadh Timmins
author Liadh Timmins
author2 Liadh Timmins
Katharine A. Rimes
Qazi Rahman
format Journal article
container_title Psychological Medicine
container_volume 48
container_issue 10
container_start_page 1705
publishDate 2018
institution Swansea University
issn 0033-2917
1469-8978
doi_str_mv 10.1017/s003329171700321x
publisher Cambridge University Press (CUP)
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003329171700321x
document_store_str 0
active_str 0
description Background: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals report higher levels of depression and anxiety than heterosexual people. Genetic factors may be a ‘common cause’ of sexual minority status and psychological distress. Alternatively, these may be correlated because of non-genetic environmental factors (e.g. minority stressors). This study investigated minority stressors and distress in monozygotic twins discordant for sexual minority status. This design provides a test of the role of non-shared environmental factors while minimizing differences due to genetics. Methods: Thirty-eight twin pairs in which one was heterosexual and the other was LGB completed a survey. Differences between twin pairs in minority stressors, rumination, psychological distress, and gender non-conformity were examined. Associations between these variables were also tested. Results: Although there were no significant group differences for distress, LGB twins had higher rumination, a vulnerability factor for distress, than heterosexual co-twins. LGB twins also had higher scores than heterosexual co-twins on expectations of rejection, active concealment, self-stigma, prejudice events, childhood gender non-conformity, and lower scores on sexual orientation disclosure. Differences between twin pairs in rumination were positively associated with differences in acceptance concerns and self-stigma. Finally, self-stigma was positively associated with rumination in the full sample of heterosexual co-twins and microaggressions were positively associated with rumination when looking at exclusively heterosexual co-twins. Conclusions: These results support environmental factors as a causal explanation for disparities in rumination between LGB and heterosexual individuals. These factors likely include minority stressors. Rumination may also be associated with minority stressors in heterosexual MZ co-twins of LGB individuals.
published_date 2018-07-01T05:10:13Z
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score 11.090009

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