Minority Stress Counseling for LGBTQ+ Individuals

Not Applicable

Recruiting

• Conditions: Minority Stress
• Interventions: Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

• Registration Number: NCT06614868
• Lead Sponsor: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Brief Summary

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) individuals experience a breadth of mental health disparities. Reducing these disparities is an area of key psychological research. Minority stress is theorized to be an underlying source of the disparities (Meyer, 2003). Minority stress can be conceptualized as the internalized stigma that results from experiences of social marginalization. By reducing minority stress, it is hypothesized that generalized mental illness indicators might be reduced and indicators of wellbeing increased.

Detailed Description

Adult participants will respond to advertisements by emailing a research assistant.

A research assistant will then arrange for a pre-screening interview to ensure inclusion criteria are met.

A research assistant will review informed consent and receive a signed informed consent during the pre-screening.

Participants who are accepted into the study will then be offered up to 12 sessions of ACT or receive an unstructured treatment as usual counseling condition delivered by graduate students in the UAB medical/clinical psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Borgogna. These sessions will be 45 minutes each and delivered in Dr. Borgogna's lab. During the first sessions a survey battery will be administered on a lab secure computer administered via Qualtrics. It will be re-administered at session six, and during the last session.

The survey will include a broad base of demographic, mental health, and minority stress measures.

Participants will be assigned a random number that will link their survey responses across sessions. Identifying information will not be gathered as part of data collection.

Study Timeline

• Status Verified: 2024-09
• Study First Submitted: 2024-09-24
• Study First Submitted QC: 2024-09-24
• Study First Posted: 2024-09-26
• Study Start: 2025-01-15
• Last Update Submitted: 2025-04-16
• Last Update Posted: 2025-04-22
• Primary Completion: 2026-05-01
• Study Completion: 2026-05-15

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: RECRUITING
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 80

Inclusion Criteria

• Must identify as non-heterosexual

Exclusion Criteria

Suicide attempt within the past 12 months.

Current eating disorder.

Narcotics use within the past 3 months

Non-suicidal self-injury within the past 6 months.

Current/History of psychosis

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Treatment Group	Acceptance and Commitment Therapy	Participants receiving acceptance and commitment therapy

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Post Traumatic Stress	12 Weeks	Patient Checklist-5
Alcohol Problems	16 Weeks	Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test
Depression	12 weeks	Patient Health Questionnaire-9
Anxiety	12 Weeks	Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7
Internalized Heterosexism	12 Weeks	Internalized Homophobia Scale
Discrimination	12 Weeks	Daily Heterosexist Questionnaire

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Experiential Avoidance	16 Weeks	Experiential Avoidance Rating Scale
Affect	16 Weeks	Positive Negative Affect Schedule
Problematic Pornography Use	12 Weeks	Brief Pornography Screen

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Alabama at Birmingham; 🇺🇸 Birmingham, Alabama, United States