Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 2, 2025

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Age Differences in Sexual Minority Stress and the Importance of Friendship in Later Life
Michael T Vale1, Toni L Bisconti1
1Department of Psychology, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA.
Objectives:
This study examined whether younger and middle-aged and older sexual minorities (YSM, MAOSM) experience minority stress differently in relation to social support and depressive symptomatology.
Methods:
Cross-sectional data from 238 sexual minorities (18-80; M = 40.93) comprised the sample, who were strategically separated into cohorts. Group difference and regression methods were used to examine differences in minority stress between groups and the relationships between minority stress-social support-depressive symptomatology within groups.
Results:
MAOSM had greater outness and lower IH. Additionally, outness and IH were the best predictors for the MAOSM and YSM group, respectively. MAOSM indicated better adaption to minority stresses, highlighting the importance of friend support as a protective mechanism.
Conclusions:
The minority stress-depressive symptomatology is mitigated by friend support in MAOSM.
Clinical Implications:
OSM and YSM demonstrate different susceptibility of minority stress on depressive symptomatology, with outness being a stronger indicator in MAOSM and IH being a stronger predictor in YSM. Social support does not work uniformly in different cohorts; however, multiple sources (i.e., family, friends) should be discussed with clients. Clinicians should treat cohort as one of the defining features of a sexual minority's lifelong experience with minority stress.
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Friendships and Close Friendships
Social Relationships and Well-Being
Relationship Formation
Ethnic Identity within a Larger Culture
Relationship Growth
Importance of Need for Affiliation

