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. 2020 Dec 23;11(1):1.
doi: 10.3390/bs11010001.

The Moderating Effect of Comfort from Companion Animals and Social Support on the Relationship between Microaggressions and Mental Health in LGBTQ+ Emerging Adults

Angela Matijczak  1 , Shelby E McDonald  1 , Camie A Tomlinson  1 , Jennifer L Murphy  1 , Kelly O'Connor  2
Affiliations

The Moderating Effect of Comfort from Companion Animals and Social Support on the Relationship between Microaggressions and Mental Health in LGBTQ+ Emerging Adults

Angela Matijczak et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual/gender minority identities) individuals frequently report exposure to microaggressions, which are associated with deleterious mental health outcomes. Social support from humans has been found to be an important protective factor for LGBTQ+ emerging adults. However, an underexplored area of research is the protective role of interactions with companion animals for this population. We conducted simple and multiple moderation analyses to explore whether and to what extent emotional comfort from companion animals and human social support moderated the relationship between LGBTQ-related microaggressions and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our sample included 134 LGBTQ+ emerging adults (mean age of 19.31). We found that social support moderated the relationship between microaggressions and depressive symptoms. The relationship between microaggressions and depressive symptoms was not significant at high levels of social support, indicating the protective nature of human social support. Comfort from companion animals also moderated the relationship between interpersonal microaggressions and depressive symptoms. For participants with high or medium levels of emotional comfort from companion animals, interpersonal microaggressions were positively associated with depressive symptoms. Our results highlight the need to further investigate the complex role of relationships with companion animals on mental health outcomes for LGBTQ+ emerging adults.

Keywords: LGBTQ; companion animals; human–animal interaction; mental health; microaggressions; minority stress; social support.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual models for moderation analyses. Covariates are not shown in the figures for clarity. (a) Simple moderation model with comfort from companion animals as the moderating variable; (b) simple moderation model with social support as the moderating variable; (c) multiple moderation model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Significant conditional effects of simple moderation (n = 134). (a) Conditional effect of interpersonal microaggressions on depressive symptoms as a function of comfort from companion animals; (b) conditional effect of interpersonal microaggressions on depressive symptoms as a function of social support; (c) conditional effect of environmental microaggressions on depressive symptoms as a function of social support. All the variables of interest were standardized.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Conditional effects of multiple moderation analyses (n = 134). (a) Conditional effect of interpersonal microaggressions on depressive symptoms as a function of social support and comfort from companion animals; (b) conditional effect of environmental microaggressions on depressive symptoms as a function of social support and comfort from companion animals. All the variables of interest were standardized.
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