The associations of sexual and ethnic-racial identity commitment, conflicts in allegiances, and mental health among lesbian, gay, and bisexual racial and ethnic minority adults

We present results from a study exploring the associations of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identity commitment and ethnic-racial identity commitment, conflicts in allegiances (CIA) between these 2 identities, and depression among LGB racial and ethnic minority people. LGB racial and ethnic minority adults (N = 208; M_age = 27.52, SD = 8.76), including 104 (50%) men, 93 (44.7%) women, and 11 (5.3%) other gender/ungendered, participated in an online survey. In terms of sexual orientation, 44 (21.2%) identified as lesbian, 90 (43.3%) identified as gay, 51 (24.5%) identified as bisexual women, 16 (7.7%) identified as bisexual men, and seven (3.4%) identified as bisexual gender/ungendered. In terms of race and ethnicity, 46 (22.1%) identified as African American, 49 (23.6%) identified as Asian American, 65 (31.3%) identified as Latinx, 6 (2.9%) identified as Native American, and 42 (20.2%) identified as being of other race/ethnicity or of mixed race. LGB identity commitment was associated with lower levels of depression, and CIA was associated with higher levels of depression. LGB identity commitment moderated the association between CIA and depression such that CIA was associated positively with depression among participants who reported low levels of LGB identity commitment, but this relation was nonsignificant among participants who reported high levels of LGB identity commitment. Implications of these findings are discussed.