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The authors pose three questions related to the conceptualization of the closet which are said to be important in understanding sexual minority individuals' experiences both in and out of the closet. Topics include the line between being in versus out of the closet, the conceptual implications of indistinct zones of the closet, and what one must disclose to come out of the closet.

Background: Sexual minority college students are at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behaviors compared to heterosexual students. Minority stress theory proposes sexual minority individuals experience higher stress due to stigma. Using a sample of Mexican college students, this study tested perceived life stress as a mediator of suicide and self-injury outcomes across various sexual orientation groups.Methods: The sample of college students (N=7882) was recruited from nine Mexican universities as part of the WHO World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) initiative. Participants completed an online survey including demographic questions, measure of perceived life stress, suicide outcomes, and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in the past 12 months.Results: Logistic regression analyses revealed identifying as a sexual minority significantly predicted a higher likelihood of suicide ideation (ORs 2.05-3.00), suicide attempts (ORs 2.48-8.73), and NSSI (ORs 2.92-4.18) compared to heterosexual students reporting no same-gender attraction. Significant indirect effects from mediation path analyses showed perceived life stress mediated the relationship between a sexual minority identity and suicide ideation (range of proportion mediated 10.48-31.48%), attempts (10.48-31.48%), and NSSI (7.69-20.09%) across each group except among asexual students.Limitations: The cross-sectional nature of the survey design precludes drawing causal inferences.Conclusion: Findings from this study contribute to minority stress theory by elucidating the role of perceived life stress as a mediator of suicide ideation and attempts and NSSI among sexual minority college students. Clinical interventions may benefit in focusing on experiences of stress across various life areas when supporting sexual minority college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Mental health disparities have been documented among sexual minority college students, but there is a dearth of evidence from developing countries. The aim is to estimate the prevalence of 12-month mental and substance use disorders across a range of sexual identities among first-year college students in Mexican universities, and test whether there is an association between sexual identity and disorders and whether the association is moderated by gender. Method: The University Project for Healthy Students, a web-based survey conducted as part of the World Health Organization's World Mental Health International College Student initiative, recruited 7874 students from nine Mexican universities in 2016 and 2017. Logistic regressions estimated the association of sexual identity with 12-month major depressive episode, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, alcohol abuse/dependence, and drug abuse/dependence, with interaction terms for gender. Results: Compared to heterosexual students reporting no same-sex attraction (SSA), heterosexual students with SSA (AORs range 1.77–3.67) and lesbian/gay and bisexual students (AORs range 2.22–5.32) were at a higher risk for several disorders. Asexual students were at higher risk for drug abuse/dependence (AOR = 3.64). Students unsure of their sexual identity were at a higher risk for major depressive episode, panic disorder, and drug abuse/dependence (AORs range 2.25–3.82). Gender differences varied across sexual identity and disorder. Conclusion: These findings are the first empirical report of sexual minority psychiatric disparities among a college student population from a developing nation and underscore the importance of clinical interventions that address mental health needs among sexual minority college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acculturative stress is commonly experienced among Latinx immigrants in the United States who may feel pressured to maintain their heritage cultural norms and beliefs and/or adopt norms and beliefs of the dominant culture. The present study examined longitudinal relations between acculturative stress and endorsement of traditional Latina gender role beliefs (i.e., marianismo). We determined strength of the relations and temporal precedence of acculturative stress and endorsement of marianismo across 3 time points during participants' initial 3 years in the United States using a random intercept cross-lagged panel model. Participants were 530 Latina young adult women (ages 18–23) recruited from Miami-Dade County, Florida. Results suggested that acculturative stress levels at Time 1 positively predicted endorsement of the Family Pillar belief at Time 2, but acculturative stress levels at Time 2 negatively predicted the Virtuous and Chaste and Subordinate to Others beliefs at Time 3. In terms of marianismo beliefs predicting acculturative stress levels over time, the Virtuous and Chaste belief at Time 1 positively predicted acculturative stress at Time 2, and the Silencing Self to Maintain Harmony belief at Time 2 positively predicted acculturative stress at Time 3. Findings suggest that the Family Pillar belief, or feeling responsibility for the family's unity, may be protective against acculturative stress over time. Endorsing certain gender role beliefs (i.e., Virtuous and Chaste, Subordinate to Others) may lead to greater acculturative stress, and Latina young adult women experiencing acculturative stress may alter their endorsement of marianismo beliefs in an attempt to resolve culturally conflicting stress experienced after immigration. This study suggests that Latina young adult immigrants' endorsement of certain traditional gender role beliefs may lead to experiences of acculturative stress, and recent immigrants may reduce or increase their endorsement of these beliefs in response to experiencing acculturative stress. Counseling interventions that focus on reducing acculturative stress may consider how the role of the family may be protective against stress. Attending to gender role beliefs in counseling may help facilitate a healthy transition to the United States for recent immigrants who may experience a peak in acculturative stress after immigration or may alter their endorsement of traditional gender role beliefs over time in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined the links between discrimination-based acculturative stress (DAS), depressive symptoms, and alcohol use among recently immigrated Latina young adults and explored potential within-group Latina ethnic differences. Structural equation modeling was used to assess these relations among 530 Latina young adults (age 18–23) who had immigrated to the USA within approximately 12 months prior to assessment. Women reporting more DAS indicated more depressive symptoms and alcohol use than counterparts reporting less DAS. Women reporting more time in the USA experienced higher levels of DAS. Undocumented participants, and those who had lived in the USA for less time, reported more depressive symptoms than their peers. Findings highlight the need for mental health clinicians to attend to their local sociopolitical climate context for discriminatory practices and integrate cultural factors in mental health and alcohol use interventions targeting Latina young adults who recently immigrated to the USA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participatory action research (PAR) with youth holds potential to spur social justice-oriented change due to its explicit orientation to transform systemic inequity. Whereas youth in PAR projects embody agency in their actions, they hold less institutional power than adults in positions of authority. In addition, youth who have been marginalized along lines of race, dis/ability, language, and/or other forms of socially constructed difference may be positioned in ways that further undermine their power. How PAR with youth can lead to changes in policies and practices in the face of these power dynamics is not yet fully understood. One mechanism that may heighten the potential of PAR with youth to promote change is a shared sense of responsibility and agency between the youth involved in PAR and those adults they may be trying to influence. This article explores this area, investigating a PAR project involving junior high youth at a K-8 school in an urban area. We examine the youth and school adults' constructions of responsibility and how these shaped possibilities for collective transformative agency. Ultimately, our article elucidates how PAR can more effectively be used as a lever to propel social justice in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dignifying the colonizer and depreciating the colonized is a reflection of internalized colonial oppression (i.e., colonial mentality). The current study examined the effect of colonial mentality on depression symptoms in a sample of mainland Puerto Ricans (N = 352). A structural equation model was examined, in which colonial mentality was hypothesized to be directly and positively associated with depression symptoms. The proposed model also tested the indirect effect of colonial mentality on depression symptoms via acculturative stress. Results indicated that a full mediation structural equation model (SEM) had a better fit to the data than our hypothesized partial mediation model. Bias-corrected bootstrapping indicated that the effect of colonial mentality on depressive symptoms was mediated by acculturative stress. That is, colonial mentality increased the risk of experiencing depression symptoms in Puerto Ricans when they felt pressured to maintaining a connection with Puerto Rican culture and society and when they experienced rejection by the society they want to emulate (acculturative stress). The current results underscore the need for researchers and clinicians to consider and assess colonial mentality when conceptualizing depression symptoms among mainland Puerto Ricans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]