The Silent Struggle: Exploring Depression, Anxiety, and Emotion Dysregulation in Sexual Identity Concealment and Disclosure During Emerging Adulthood

Sexually diverse emerging adults have a heightened risk of experiencing greater anxiety and depression compared to their heterosexual counterparts, which can be attributed to heterosexist ideals. Existing as a sexually diverse individual in a heteronormative context can impact the emotion regulation strategies an individual utilizes as well as their overall mental health. How the concealment and disclosure of a sexually diverse identity interacts with emotion regulation to predict mental health outcomes, such as anxiety and depression, have not been examined within emerging adulthood. The current study aimed to (1) examine emotion dysregulation, concealment of sexual identity, and disclosure of a sexual identity as predictors of depression and anxiety, and (2) assess to what extent concealment of a sexual identity and disclosure of a sexual identity moderates the association between dysregulation and depression and anxiety. Data for the current study were obtained from a larger longitudinal study that recruited two cohorts of emerging adults who were enrolled in college. The current study utilized 76 participants (Mage = 20.84; 75% cisgender women) from both cohorts, but only at specific time points of the parent study. It was found that only concealment significantly predicted emerging adult anxiety and depression. When predicting depression, the association between concealment and emotion dysregulation was found to be trending towards significance; however, when predicting anxiety, the interaction was significant. There could be many reasons why outcomes of the disclosure models were nonsignificant, such as resiliency to discrimination, supportive social relationships, or identification with additional minoritized groups. Findings reveal how concealing a diverse sexual identity can be detrimental to mental health and the importance of creating supportive environments, especially for emerging adults attending college.