(PS4-A3) Comparing Hypervigilance, Negative Posttraumatic Beliefs, and PTSD Symptoms Between Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) and Non-sgm Adults

Although trauma exposure is common in the general population (»70%; Bardeen & Benfer, 2019), sexual and gender minority (SGM) adults are at greater risk of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma (Roberts et al., 2010). Factors that contribute to the maintenance of PTSD include hypervigilance (Kimble et al., 2014) and negative posttraumatic beliefs (LoSavio et al., 2017). However, following from the Minority Stress Model (Meyer & Frost, 2013), there may be important differences between SGM and non-SGM adults in hypervigilance, negative posttraumatic beliefs, and PTSD symptoms. The purpose of this study was to provide new insights into processes that underlie PTSD in a community at greater risk of developing PTSD.

Participants (N = 230) were recruited via Amazon’s MTurk. SGM adults (50%) were matched to non-SGM adults on distal demographic variables known to confer risk for PTSD (sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, and income). Participants completed a battery of self-report measures, including measures of trauma exposure, PTSD symptoms, hypervigilance, and negative posttraumatic beliefs. Analyses were conducted in SPSS (version 28) with bias corrected bootstrapping (1000 resamples). A 2x2 MANOVA was used to examine the main and interactive effects of SGM identity and trauma exposure on hypervigilance, negative posttraumatic beliefs, and total PTSD symptoms.

Compared to non-SGM individuals, SGM individuals reported significantly greater hypervigilance, total negative posttraumatic beliefs, negative beliefs about the threat of harm, and PTSD symptoms (ps £ .02) and greater negative beliefs about self-worth at a trend-level (p = .06). No significant interactions between SGM identity and trauma exposure were found to predict hypervigilance, negative posttraumatic beliefs, or PTSD symptoms. However, the interaction of SGM identity and trauma exposure did produce a trend-level effect on beliefs about harm (p = .10), such that SGM adults with past trauma exposure reported stronger beliefs about the threat of harm than trauma-naïve SGM adults and all non-SGM adults.

This is the first known comparison of SGM and matched non-SGM adults on hypervigilance and negative posttraumatic beliefs, two important maintenance factors in PTSD. Consistent with the Minority Stress Model, SGM adults reported greater PTSD symptoms, hypervigilance, and negative posttraumatic beliefs (particularly beliefs about the threat of harm) than non-SGM individuals. SGM identity did not interact with trauma exposure to predict differences in PTSD symptoms or maintenance factors. Avenues for continued research include recruiting clinical samples and employing more nuanced assessments of trauma exposure (e.g., interpersonal vs non-interpersonal traumas) and intersecting identities.