3 - (SYM 119) Do Romantic Relationship Factors Buffer the Negative Effect of Binegative Stress on Mental Health Among Bisexual Women?

People who are attracted to individuals of more than one gender (i.e., bi+ people) experience unique minority stressors (i.e., binegative events) that increase risk for depression and anxiety. Little is known about factors that may protect bi+ individuals against the detrimental effects of binegative events on mental health. Research has found that romantic partner responsiveness following a stressful event may buffer the association between the event and negative mental health outcomes. This study examined romantic relationship factors as moderators of the association between binegative events and mental health in a sample of cisgender bi+ women using a 28-day diary study. Cisgender bi+ women in a married or cohabiting romantic relationship (N = 155) completed daily measures of sad and fearful affect, binegative events, event severity, disclosure of events to their partner, and partner’s responsiveness (i.e., PPR) to disclosures of events. Linear mixed models were used to examine the degree to which disclosure and PPR buffered the same-day associations between perceived binegative event severity and daily sad and fearful affect. Results indicated that participants reported higher sad and fearful affect when they experienced more binegative events throughout the study, as well as higher than their average sad affect on days that they experienced a binegative event. Among participants who reported any binegative events, reporting higher event severity in general was associated with higher average sadness and fear, but within-person associations between event severity and sadness and fear were not significant. Neither disclosure of binegative events to one’s partner nor PPR to the disclosure were found to moderate any of these associations. However, there was a main effect of PPR on fear, but not sadness, both between and within persons. As PPR increased on average between-subjects, fear was found to decrease, whereas on days in which individuals’ fear was higher than average, they experienced more PPR than average. More research is needed to understand the role of romantic factors in the daily experience of minority stressors among bi+ individuals.