Revised by Applicant): The Basic Behavioral Science Task Force (BBSTF) of the National Advisory Mental Health Council (1996) stated that coping with stigmatization """"""""can result in chronic levels of stress that have physical and mental health consequences"""""""" (p. 725) and called for further research in this area. Meyer (1995, 2002) outlined four sources of stigma-related stress that may be related to mental health of minority individuals. These sources of """"""""minority stress"""""""" can be termed internalized stigma, expectations of stigmatization, experiences of prejudice, and concealment of minority identity. The current study uses structural equation modeling tests of manifest variable path analytic models to provide the first concomitant examination of the extent to which the four stress mechanisms account for variance in mental health-related criteria that have been shown to have higher prevalence rates among some minority populations. The criterion variables included in this study are psychological distress, substance use, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Based on findings of extant literature, it is hypothesized that internalized stigma and concealment of minority identity will mediate the links of expectations of stigmatization and reported experiences of prejudice to each of three criterion variables. Given that general negative affectivity might play a role in experiences and reporting of minority stress variables as well as mental health-related criteria, it will be included as a covariate in tests of the proposed links. The proposed analytic technique allows tests of the comparative fit of hypothetically derived outcomes. Structural equation modeling is well suited for estimating models that include complex mediator relationships (Brown, 1997), as proposed in the current study. These models will allow a multivariate assessment of the strength of the unique links of each of the four minority stress mechanisms, in the context of the other three mechanisms, while controlling for relevant covariates (e.g., gender, race, age, negative affectivity). This study will serve as the groundwork for future research aimed to integrate other relevant theoretical conceptualizations with minority stress theory and develop and evaluate interventions based on this program of research.
