A recent experience sampling study that utilized the psychological mediation framework advanced in this paper may provide initial answers to these questions. In this study, it was hypothesized that rumination would be a more salient risk factor for individuals with concealed (e.g., LGB) versus conspicuous (e.g., African-American) identities, because the concealability of a stigma increases uncertainty and hypervigilance (Pachankis, 2008), which are associated with rumination (Lyubomirsky et al., 1999). The results, however, demonstrated that both African American and LGB respondents engaged equally in rumination following stigma-related stress, and that rumination exerted negative consequences for mental health across stigmatized status (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Dovidio, in press). Although these findings suggest that rumination operates in similar ways for people with different types of stigma, this pattern was not consistent for all psychological mediators. Indeed, the effect of social support on subsequent psychological distress was moderated by concealability of the stigma. That is, LGB respondents reported more isolation and less quality social support subsequent to experiencing stigma-related stressors, which accounted for their higher levels of distress. In contrast, African Americans reported greater social support and were not more likely to isolate themselves after experiencing stigma-related events.
