Discrimination and Posttraumatic Symptomatology Among Trauma-exposed Sexual Minority Women and Transgender and Gender-Diverse People

Sexual and gender minority women (SMW) and transgender and/or gender-diverse (TGD) people experience high rates of trauma, resulting in mental health disparities such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Nevertheless, contributors to posttraumatic stress symptoms among SMW and TGD people remain underexamined relative to cisgender, heterosexual people. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether stressors uniquely experienced by minoritized populations (e.g., discrimination) contribute to symptoms over and above general stressors (e.g., trauma exposure). The present study used path analysis to test whether discrimination and trauma exposure are associated with posttraumatic stress symptoms through emotion dysregulation, social support, and/or self-efficacy among SMW and TGD people. Trauma-exposed SMW and TGD people (<i>N</i> = 59) reported trauma and discrimination experiences, emotion dysregulation, social support, self-efficacy, and past-month posttraumatic stress symptoms. Greater discrimination experiences were related to greater posttraumatic stress symptom severity through lower perceived social support, although these indirect effects were no longer significant after controlling for trauma exposure type. Childhood abuse was independently related to greater posttraumatic stress symptom severity, after accounting for discrimination and additional trauma exposures. Findings suggest co-occurring yet unique associations of discrimination and childhood abuse with posttraumatic stress symptoms, supporting theoretical models on dual impacts of minority-specific and general life stressors in mental health outcomes within SMW and TGD people. Future research could examine additional psychosocial constructs that might lead to or exacerbate posttraumatic stress symptoms in response to discrimination and child abuse to inform tailored, trauma-focused interventions for SMW and TGD populations.