Linking minority stress to substance abuse in LGB adults: the mediating effect of sexual harassment

Bad Break-Up Behavior: Break-Up Characteristics, Emotional Dysregulation, and Alcohol Use as Risk Factors for Cyber Dating Abuse Among Sexual Orientation Diverse College Students

Cyber dating abuse (CDA) is a growing public health concern among college students. CDA includes monitoring and abusive behaviors perpetrated toward an ex-partner via technology. Little is known about the predictors of CDA, particularly among sexual minority (SM) college students. Some theorized but relatively untested predictors include break-up characteristics, emotional regulation deficits, and alcohol use. The current study investigates what factors are associated with an increased risk for CDA toward an ex-partner (i.e., break-up characteristics, emotional dysregulation, and alcohol use) and the differences in associations with CDA between heterosexual and SM college students. Participants (N = 661) self-reported their CDA perpetration following their worst romantic break-up. They also answered questions about the break-up, their emotional regulation skills, and their current alcohol use. While SM students (n = 191) reported greater emotion regulation difficulties and alcohol use, they did not significantly differ from heterosexual participants (n = 470) in their reported CDA perpetration post-break-up. Hierarchical regressions were conducted to determine the impact of break-up characteristics and individual factors on CDA perpetration. Break-up characteristics, emotional dysregulation, and alcohol use significantly predicted heterosexual participants' CDA perpetration and accounted for 17% of the variance. Conversely, for SM students, only alcohol use was predictive of CDA, accounting for 5% of the variance. Although SM students report similar break-up experiences and levels of CDA as heterosexual students, additional, unmeasured factors may drive perpetration. However, given the generally high rates of alcohol use and CDA, and their robust association, interventions targeting alcohol reduction and healthy relationship dissolution strategies may be beneficial.

Chemsex and Sexual Well-Being in Young Polish Men

Chemsex refers to the use of psychoactive drugs for sexual purposes-before or during sex. This phenomenon mainly affects men, in particular those belonging to the LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, asexual, and more diverse individuals) community. From the perspective of the transactional theory of stress, chemsex can be considered a strategy for coping with stress, which is why it is also extremely important to verify its role in functioning outside the sexual sphere. For this reason, this study verified the relationship between the use of chemsex, perceived stress, sexual well-being, and life satisfaction in young Polish men. The study involved 175 men (67 people using chemsex and 108 people in the control group) between 18 and 33 years of age. The Perceived Stress Scale, the Short Scale of Sexual Well-being, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the authors' questionnaire about the use of chemsex were used. It was observed that individuals using chemsex showed a significantly lower level of sexual well-being and satisfaction with life (moderate effects) and a higher level of perceived stress (strong effect) when compared to the control group not using psychoactive substances. Additionally, a positive and moderate relationship was observed between the number of psychoactive substances used and perceived stress in the group of individuals using chemsex. Moreover, the number of substances used and the level of perceived stress were negatively and moderately related to the level of well-being in these individuals. It was also shown that perceived stress was a significant predictor of the number of psychoactive substances used before and during sex and that perceived stress and the number of psychoactive substances used were significant and negative predictors of life satisfaction and sexual well-being, explaining a large portion of their variance.