Date of Award
5-10-2026
Date Published
June 2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Psychology
Advisor(s)
Sarah Woolf-King
Keywords
Alcohol;Minority Stress
Subject Categories
Clinical Psychology | Psychology | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
Unhealthy alcohol use is prevalent in college environments, and disproportionately higher among sexual and gender minority (SGM) undergraduate college students. Minority stress theory posits that SGM stressors, particularly proximal forms of stressors (e.g., internalized stigma), negatively impact psychological processes, which are then associated with an increased prevalence of alcohol use. Experiential avoidance, or the avoidance of uncomfortable internal experiences, is one such psychological process that may influence the association between internal SGM stress and alcohol-related outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if experiential avoidance significantly moderates the association between SGM internal stressors (i.e., internalized stigma and rejection in close relationships) and alcohol use and related consequences. We hypothesized that the association between internal SGM stress and alcohol use/consequences would be stronger among SGM college students reporting higher levels of experiential avoidance. To test this hypothesis, a crosssectional online survey was completed by 207 SGM college students. Results from the moderation analyses revealed neither association between internal SGM stress and alcoholrelated consequences (b = -0.001, p = .50, 95% CI [-.005, .002]) nor alcohol-related outcomes (b = -0.01, p = .40, 95% CI [-.02, .01]) were significantly moderated by experiential avoidance. These results suggest that levels of experiential avoidance did not significantly influence the relationship between internal SGM stress and alcohol-related outcomes. Keywords: minority stress, alcohol use, experiential avoidance
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Cardenas, Nicolas, "THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PROXIMAL SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITY STRESSORS AND ALCOHOL-RELATED OUTCOMES: THE MODERATING ROLE OF EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE" (2026). Theses - ALL. 1003.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/1003
