Health Psychol. 2025 Mar;44(3):266-274. doi: 10.1037/hea0001455.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Internalized social stigma and cyberbullying often lead to negative outcomes and decreased well-being among Latinx sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth. Fear of being judged by family members deters Latinx SGD youth from using preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Parental acceptance can serve as a buffer against negative mental health outcomes for Latinx SGD youth. However, less is known about the role of parental acceptance in experiences of cyberbullying, internalized stigma, and interest in taking PrEP in the future. This study aimed to explore the relationship between cyberbullying (predictor), SGD internalized stigma (mediator), parental acceptance (Moderator 1), and history of sexual intercourse (Moderator 2) on interest in taking PrEP in the future (outcome) using a mediation and moderated mediation analyses.
METHOD: We used a large national, diverse sample of Latinx SGD youth (N = 1,772, ages 13-18) recruited online. We conducted a series of mediation and moderated mediation analyses to test our hypotheses.
RESULTS: Our results show that cyberbullying is associated with lower odds of taking PrEP, and internalized SGD stigma helped explain this relation as a mediator. Furthermore, parental acceptance and history of sexual intercourse moderated the relation between cyberbullying and internalized SGD stigma, as well as the relation between cyberbullying and the interest in taking PrEP in the future.
CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the effects of cyberbullying and internalized stigma on health factors that affect Latinx SGD youth, as well as the role of parental acceptance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).
PMID:39992772 | DOI:10.1037/hea0001455
