Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Gender Studies in Turkey Conference, İstanbul, Türkiye, 9 - 10 Aralık 2023, ss.75-76
In psychology, self-silencing has been mostly used to understand the experiences of depression of heterosexual women in intimate relationships in the literature. The different dynamics within queer relationships may not explain the relational self-silencing of sexual minorities to the same extent, and there is little research that examines the self-silencing behavior of sexual minorities. To that end, we developed a new measure of self-silencing to heterosexism, that sexual minorities’ silencing and censor themselves to avoid possible negative outcomes in heterosexist environments. In line with minority stress theory, we predicted that self-silencing to heterosexism can give insight into internalized and externalized homophobia experiences of sexual minorities and their mental health (i.e., depression). Our data was quantitative, and 598 sexual minorities participated through an online survey. We found significant correlations between internalized homophobia and depression, discrimination, and depression, but no significant association between depression and social support. We also employed mediation analysis to test whether self-silencing mediates the relationship between internalized homophobia and depression and that between discrimination experiences and depression. Contrary to our expectations, the indirect effects of internalized homophobia and discrimination on depression through self-silencing were not significant. Although self-silencing to heterosexism is a promising concept for comprehending minority stress experiences of sexual minorities, future studies may investigate the separate experiences of specific sexual minorities with more distinct minority stressors since sexual minorities are not a monolithic group. Hence, a more nuanced picture of the mental health of sexual minorities in relation to self-silencing, discrimination, and internalized homophobia may be obtained.