Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

6137

Date

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Psychology

Concentration

General Psychology

Committee Chair

Idia B. Thurston

Committee Member

James Murphy

Committee Member

Suzanne Lease

Abstract

Sexual minority young adults and individuals with weight self-stigma (WSS) are more likely to experience psychopathology and cope via drug use. Despite a sizeable body of research examining the relationship between WSS and psychological outcomes, researchers have not explored whether sexual orientation contributes to the relationship between weight self-stigma and drug use. Recruiting from Amazon Mechanical Turk and a Midsouth university sample, we surveyed 568 young adults about depressive symptoms, WSS, substance use, and sexual orientation. Sexual orientation was examined as a moderator between self-stigma and drug use. The interaction between sexual orientation and WSS was significant (p < .05), such that for sexual minorities there was a significant positive association of WSS on drug use, while for heterosexual youth the association was not significant. Findings suggest that the compounded stigma associated with being a sexual minority and experiencing internalized weight stigma is related to drug use problems.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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