Microaggressions and depressive symptoms in sexual minority youth: The roles of rumination and social support.

Mental health disparities between sexual minority and heterosexual youth are often explained by the increased level of victimization that has been found among sexual minority youth. However, many studies have focused on the negative impact of explicit victimization, whereas the consequences of more subtle, everyday discriminations, termed microaggressions, against sexual minority youth are currently unknown. With an online survey study among 268 Dutch sexual minority youth (aged 16-22 years) we investigated associations between sexual orientation microaggressions and depressive symptomatology and whether these could be explained by ruminative emotion regulation and buffered by sexuality-specific support. Results from mediation analyses showed that experiences with microaggressions were indirectly related to depressive symptoms, through ruminative emotion regulation (brooding). Moderation analyses showed no buffering effects of sexuality-specific support. Overall, our findings point to the need for awareness of the negative impact of subtle, everyday discriminatory experiences among sexual minority youth, and how these relations can be explained by ruminative emotion regulation.