The previous study only examined same-sex attraction; specific stigma-related stressors were not assessed. However, support for all three pathways of the psychological mediation framework comes from a recent experience sampling study with 31 LGB young adults, who completed measures on stigma-related stressors (e.g., discrimination experiences, sensitivity to rejection, and felt stigma), responses to these stressors, and mood over the course of ten days. Results indicated that rumination occurred more on days when stigma-related stressors were reported, and rumination mediated the relationship between stigma-related stress and psychological distress. In a follow-up experimental study, LGB participants who were induced to ruminate following the recall of an autobiographical discrimination event exhibited prolonged distress on both implicit and explicit measures relative to those who were induced to distract, providing support for a causal role of rumination in the stigma-distress relationship (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, & Dovidio, in press).
