{"doi":"10.17615/9mev-km13","title":"The relationship between family environments growing up and behavioral health among LGBTQ+ adults: The mediating role of internalized homonegativity","abstract":"Purpose Disparities in the behavioral health outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) adults—such as depression, anxiety, and alcohol use—are often attributed to experiences of discrimination, victimization, and lack of supportive environments, including hetero- and cis-normative family settings. Yet, how family environments in childhood influence LGBTQ+ adults’ behavioral health and internalized homonegativity has not been extensively examined. Methods This study utilized a U.S. national dataset of LGBTQ+ adults (N = 499). Data were collected in November 2020 using an online survey. A series of multivariate ordinary least squares regression models and Sobel tests were performed. Results Results showed that as homophobic messages from family increased, levels of depression (β = .19, p < .001), anxiety (β = .17, p < .001), and internalized homonegativity (β = .13, p < .01) increased. As the conservatism level in families increased, levels of alcohol use (β = .11, p < .05), and internalized homonegativity (β = .15, p < .01) increased. In the mediation analysis, internalized homonegativity was found to partially mediate the relationship between homophobic messages from family and depression (z = 3.35, p < .001), homophobic messages and anxiety (z = 3.09, p < .01), and conservatism in family and alcohol use (z = 2.80, p < 0.01). Internalized homonegativity also fully mediated the relationship between homophobic messages and alcohol use (z = 2.66, p < 0.01), conservatism in family and depression (z = 3.76, p < 0.001), and conservatism in family and anxiety (z = 3.45, p < 0.001). Conclusion Study findings underscore the importance of inclusive climates within a family and internalized homonegativity as a mediator for LGBTQ+ individuals’ behavioral health. Implications for intervention and future research are discussed.","journal":"UNC Libraries","year":2025,"id":581375,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9559,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1492629,"name":"Pin‐Chen Chiang","orcid":"0009-0000-3625-1571","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1493012,"name":"Jake A. Leite","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":625925,"name":"William J. Hall","orcid":"0000-0002-1161-3203","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1042547,"name":"Ankur Srivastava","orcid":"0000-0003-4075-2429","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1493013,"name":"Adam R. Englert","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1042546,"name":"Denise Yookong Williams","orcid":"0000-0003-2910-5933","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1492628,"name":"Yinuo Xu","orcid":"0000-0002-9727-6956","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:58:47.357782Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}