How Minority Stress Becomes Traumatic Invalidation: An Emotion-Focused Conceptualization of Minority Stress in Sexual and Gender Minority People

Transdiagnostic mechanisms such as emotion dysregulation have been found to influence the relationships among minority stressors and poor mental health outcomes in sexual and gender minority (SGM) people. However, research has yet to describe why or how exactly minority stressors may impact SGM individuals’ abilities to effectively access and utilize their own emotions. Because SGM people are at risk for universal forms of invalidation as well as identity-specific forms (i.e., minority stressors), understanding minority stress through the lens of chronic and traumatic invalidation may help to illuminate the core emotional processes underlying their disproportionate rates of emotional and behavioral disorders.