The Metro: For the LGBTQ + community, affirming one’s identity, Is a source of real psychological strength
New research from Michigan State University explores how identity affirmation supports mental health for sexual and gender diverse people of color, while also examining the emotional costs that can come with building resilience through discrimination and oppression.
Researchers Dr. Aldo Baritta and Dr. Joshua Parmenter
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
Why does that framing always skip over what we survived? Or how we’re still holding it all together?
New research published in American Psychologist is asking exactly that.
The study out of Michigan State University, Affirming Racial and Gender Identity Supports Mental Health, found that for sexual and gender diverse people of color, affirming your identity, is a source of real psychological strength.
But the research also finds something more complicated. Growing through oppression, developing yourself through the experience of discrimination, builds resilience.
And it also costs something. The researchers named that honestly. And that honesty is part of what makes this work different.
Dr. Aldo Barrita is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University.
Dr. Joshua Parmenter is an assistant professor at Arizona State University and licensed psychologist specializing in the mental health of LGBTQ+ and marginalized BIPOC communities.
Both joined The Metro to talk more about the study and its results.
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