This study aimed to investigate how "outness," spirituality/religiosity, gay identity affirmation and demographic factors relate to each other and predict internalized homophobia (IH). IH is linked to a host of negative outcomes. The study took place over three months at the 2012 New York Pride parades in all five boroughs. Participants were recruited via the cross-sectional street-intercept approach, 195 of whom met the inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26. In sum, the sample consisted of a highly educated, mostly white, high-income subset of men. The regression model indicated that gay identity importance and being “out” to world were predictive of IH. There were also significant differences in participation in gay activities along the lines of education and race. Same sex attracted men who earned a four-year college degree reported more participation in gay activities compared to those of lower attainment levels. Compared to White men, Latino men participated in less gay activities, possibly due to cultural factors. Men who have higher levels of affirmation were more likely to participated in gay activities, which could include pride, which suggests a potential bias. Buddhists reported unusually high levels of internalized homophobia compared to other spiritual and religious practices and orientations. Finally, there were no significant differences in homophobia with race, but there was one with religion. Christians exhibited statistically significantly higher levels of internalized homophobia compared to those who were nonreligious namely atheists, agnostics, and the spiritual but not religious. Implications for health promotion were discussed.
目次
Abstract i Dedication iii Acknowledgements iv I - Introduction 1 Background and Context 1 Spirituality and Religion 1 Spiritual but Not Religious in America 2 The Historical Underpinnings 2 Spirituality and Sexual Minorities 4 Why Study Spirituality and Religion in Public Health 5 Spirituality and Religion as Adaptive Coping 5 Religion, Law and Policy Implications for Sexual Minorities 5 Implications for Practice 7 Gap in the Literature 8 Significance of Study 8 Research Aims 9 Definitions of Terms 10 II - Literature Review 12 Introduction 12 Sexual Minority Identity Development 14 Sexual Minority Identity and Spiritual Identity 15 LGB Identity Integration and Religion 18 LGB Identities and Organized Religion 19 Gap in the Literature 22 III - Methods 23 Research Design 23 Sampling Frame and Eligibility Criteria 24 Procedures 24 Demographic Characteristics 25 Measures 25 Outness inventory 25 Spiritual Experience Index-Revised 26 Gay Identity Affirmation/Self-Homophobia Subscales 27 Data Analysis 27 IV - Results 28 Response rate 28 Missing Data 28 Data Analysis 30 Results 31 Aim 1: What are the characteristics of NYC same-sex-attracted men in terms of age, race religion, and sexual attraction 31 Frequencies 32 Aim 2: What are their levels of 1) spiritual support and openness, 2) gay identity affirmation and 3) outness in the sample of urban same-sex-attracted men? 35 Spiritual Support and Openness 35 Gay Identity Affirmation 35 Outness Inventory 36 Aim 3: How are urban same-sex attracted men's reported spiritual support and spiritual openness, gay-identity affirmation and outness related to each other? 36 Outness 37 Correlations between measures of outness 38 Self-Homophobia 38 Aim 4: To What Extent are Religion, Age, Race, Educational Attainment, Gay Identity Affirmation Predictive of Self-Homophobia? 38 Assumptions 39 Hypotheses 39 Omnibus F-test hypotheses 39 Partial F-test hypotheses 40 Multiple Regression Analysis 40 Omnibus F-test 41 Variance Inflation Factor 45 Demographic Characteristics 45 Race 46 Religion 46 Income 46 "Outness" 47 Aim 5: What are the Differences in Internalized Homophobia Scores Between Race and Religion? 47 Hypothesis Testing 48 Race and Internalized Homophobia 48 Religion and Internalized Homophobia 49 T-Tests 50 Gay Activity 51 V – Discussion 54 Summary of Key Findings 54 Demographics 55 Future Research 63 Implications for Health Promotion 65 Limitations 67 References 68 Appendix 74 Appendix A - Survey Instrument 74 List of Tables 1. Characteristics of Participants 31 2. Self Homonegativity by Sociodemographic Factors 34 3. Correlations between Spiritual Openness and Support, Gay Identity Affirmation, and Outness 37 4. ANOVA Table; Omnibus F-Test 42 5. Model Summary 43 6. Regression Coefficients Table 44 7. Leven’s Test of Equality of Error Variances 49 8. Kruskal-Wallis Test (Ranks and Test Statistics) 49 9. Summary of Significant Differences Compared to Christians 51 10. Levene’s Test of Equality of Variances: Gay Activity Participation and Educational Attainmen
