Depression, Identity Functioning, and Negative Affective Reactivity to Sexual- and Gender-Minority Concealment and Outness in Daily Life in a Predominantly Female Bi+ Sample

Abstract

Sexual- and gender-minority (SGM) individuals experience higher rates of depression compared with their non-SGM peers. Little is known about the day-to-day processes linking SGM experiences to depression. In responses from SGM young adults ( N  = 252)—predominantly self-identified as bi+ (sexual/romantic interest in multiple genders) cisgender women and nonbinary individuals assigned female at birth—we used multilevel structural equation modeling to investigate whether affective reactivity to SGM concealment and outness over an 8-day ambulatory assessment period ( N  = 4,342 observations) was associated with depression symptoms and whether momentary identity dysfunction accounted for this association. Concealment and outness were differentially associated with self-concept clarity and SGM-identity positivity. We did not find a direct association between depression and affective reactivity, although higher mean negative affect indirectly linked depression and affective reactivity to concealment. This study indicates that momentary identity and affective processes play an important role in the daily experiences of visibility for bi+ individuals.