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Religious Identity Dissonance: Examining the Path of Religious Factors to Depression in Sexual Minority Men in the USA

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Abstract

Little is known about the religious factors that contribute to religious identity dissonance (ID) for sexual minority men. Our aim was to model the path of religious factors to depression symptoms through ID and internalized stigma (IS). US sexual minority men (N = 168) participated in a survey about religious factors and mental health. Serial mediation of religious factors through ID and IS to depression symptoms was assessed using Hayes PROCESS macro. Results indicate that two religious factors significantly increase depression through ID and IS. Negative parental religious messages about LGBTQ people play a meaningful role in ID and increasing depression.

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The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JJG, RD, and JOS. AP contributed to writing the background and editing the manuscript. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JJG, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jeremy J. Gibbs.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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No individual person’s data in any form are included in this manuscript.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Georgia (March 26, 2020/ PROJECT00001602).

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Gibbs, J.J., O’Shields, J., DeVane, R. et al. Religious Identity Dissonance: Examining the Path of Religious Factors to Depression in Sexual Minority Men in the USA. J Relig Health (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-024-02025-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-024-02025-4

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