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. 2025 Jun 21;15(7):839.
doi: 10.3390/bs15070839.

Examining Longitudinal Risk and Strengths-Based Factors Associated with Depression Symptoms Among Sexual Minority Men in Canada

Yusuf Ghauri  1 , Graham W Berlin  1 , Shayna Skakoon-Sparling  1   2 , Adhm Zahran  1 , David J Brennan  3 , Barry D Adam  4 , Trevor A Hart  1   5
Affiliations

Examining Longitudinal Risk and Strengths-Based Factors Associated with Depression Symptoms Among Sexual Minority Men in Canada

Yusuf Ghauri et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Sexual minority men (SMM) experience anti-SMM stressors and have elevated rates of mental health issues compared to heterosexual men, such as depression. Importantly, strengths-based factors may directly increase wellbeing and provide a buffer against the detrimental effects of such stressors. In the present study, we integrated risk and strengths-based models to examine predictors of depression symptoms in a sample of 465 Canadian SMM across three time points using multilevel modeling. Higher scores on a measure of childhood physical abuse at baseline, and greater within-person (i.e., deviation from individual's average) and between-person (i.e., deviation from group average) internalized homonegativity and heterosexist discrimination were associated with higher depression scores. Higher within- and between-person scores on measures of self-esteem, social support, and hope were associated with lower depression scores. Social support buffered the effects of between-person heterosexist discrimination on depression symptoms: at mean and high levels of social support, heterosexist discrimination was not associated with depression symptoms. This is the first study to disaggregate between-person and within-person effects of both risk factors and strengths-based factors among SMM, which has critical importance for the development of tailored individual-level interventions that target internalized homonegativity, hope, social support, and self-esteem to alleviate symptoms of depression among SMM.

Keywords: depression; minority stress; multilevel modeling; protective factors; sexual minority men; strengths-based factors; syndemics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Simple slopes plot of heterosexist discrimination means at levels of social support moderator.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Simple slopes plot of internalized homonegativity means at levels of social support moderator.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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