A recent longitudinal study with sexual minorities substantiates the hypothesis that stigma-related stress initiates rumination. The study included 74 bereaved gay male caregivers of loved ones who died from AIDS. Participants were assessed before the partner or close friend died and then at 1, 6, 13, and 18 months post-loss. Those who reported experiencing a specific stigma-related stressor (operationalized as perceived danger due to being gay) showed increased tendencies to ruminate and, in turn, increased depressive and anxious symptoms over time (Hatzenbuehler, Hilt, & Nolen-Hoeksema, in press). A strength of this study was its use of Hierarchical Linear Modeling, which enabled the estimation of a mediation model for each individual, using all available measurements at each time point. Although most studies of social stress focus on inter-individual differences in stress and subsequent mental health problems (Pearlin et al., 1981), this is the first study to demonstrate significant intra-individual variability in coping/emotion regulation processes (i.e., rumination) associated with changes in a specific stigma-related stressor (i.e., perceived danger).
