The Weathering and Flaring Processes of Sexual Minority Stressors on Psychological Distress: Disentangling the Within- and Between-Person Effects.

The minority stress theory postulates that sexual minority individuals are subject to three forms of stressors-general, distal, and proximal-which are detrimental to their mental health. However, the distinction between within-person and between-person stress processes remains underexplored in the literature. Utilizing longitudinal data from 985 sexual minority participants (519 women; 466 men) across three years, multilevel analysis was used to disentangle the two-level stress process. Specifically, this study examined the associations between three distinct forms of stressors (everyday discrimination, felt stigma, and internalized homophobia) and psychological distress at both the within-person (flaring process) and between-person (weathering process) levels. Results revealed that everyday discrimination and internalized homophobia were associated with psychological distress significantly at the within-person level while all three stressors showed significant associations with psychological distress at the between-person level. Additionally, age was found to significantly moderate this two-level stress process. At the within-person level, age significantly moderated the association between internalized homophobia and psychological distress, while at the between-person level, age moderated the associations between everyday discrimination and psychological distress, as well as between felt stigma and psychological distress.