EXPLORING EFFECTS OF MINORITY STRESS, IDENTITY, AND COPING ON PSYCHOLOGICAL AND RELATIONSHIP FUNCTIONING AMONG PARTNERED PLURISEXUAL WOMEN

Individuals who identify as plurisexual (i.e., attracted to more than one gender; bi+) face worse health and relationship outcomes as compared with monosexual (i.e., attracted to only one gender, e.g., lesbian/gay, heterosexual) individuals. Bi-specific minority stress and exclusion from monosexual communities have been identified as prominent risk factors for such outcomes. Still, bi+ individuals and relationships often remain excluded from studies of queer populations. The current study addresses this gap by elucidating how minority stress, identity, and coping impact psychological and relationship functioning among partnered bi+ women.A national sample of 113 monogamously partnered bi+ cisgender women completed online measures of bisexual-specific minority stress, identity, community connectedness, emotion dysregulation, coping, psychological distress, and relationship functioning. Participants also reported on their partner's sexual identity. The study included a brief initial survey, a screening phone call with a research team member, and an online battery of questionnaires. While most analyses produced null findings, some noteworthy patterns emerged in the study results. First, participants with a bi+ partner experienced significantly greater illegitimacy of bisexuality than those with a heterosexual partner. Higher proximal and distal minority stress predicted greater psychological distress and worse relationship functioning. Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that both identity centrality and bisexual community connectedness moderated the relation between antibisexual experiences and relationship functioning such that lower centrality and connectedness predicted more deleterious effects of minority stress on relationship functioning. Similarly, emotion dysregulation exacerbated the relation between minority stress and relationship functioning. Also as predicted, detachment-style coping and dyadic coping both emerged as moderators such that detachment worsened the impacts of minority stress on relationship functioning, whereas dyadic coping mitigated these impacts. Study outcomes identify several key risk and protective factors for partnered bi+ women. Findings highlight the importance of better assessing and understanding partners' sexual identities and bisexual-specific minority stress in studies of relationship functioning. Clinical implications include emphasizing identity centrality, community connectedness, emotion regulation, and adaptive coping within relationship contexts, especially among bi+ women. Taken together, these novel findings suggest that future research and clinical practice prioritize inclusion of plurisexual individuals and their unique experiences.