Gay Community Stress and Mental Health among Sexual Minority Men: The Moderating Role of Community Involvement

• Sexual minority men (SMM) experience elevated rates of depression and anxiety,1,2 which are often explained through stigma-related pressures.3

• Gay community stress among sexual minority men has been linked to increased mental health concerns, including social anxiety and depression.5,6

• Gay community spaces centered around nightlife or social media may amplify risk of mental health concerns, whereas other forms of involvement (e.g., political activism) may buffer against mental health concerns.7

• Study measures included the Gay Community Stress Scale (GCSS), Gay Community Involvement Index (GCII), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), and Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D)

• Analyses conducted using the PROCESS macro on SPSS controlling for age, gender modality (cisgender vs. transgender), income, and relationship status

• Simple slopes analyses using the Johnson-Neyman method was used for any significant interactions.

• A total of 771 sexual minority men (Mage = 30.1, SDage = 7.8) recruited on Prolific in Spring 2025 as part of a larger study examining racial/ethnic differences in gay community stress. 

• Gay community stress is a key predictor of both social anxiety and depressive symptoms, but its effect is not uniform across all SMM. Instead, the role of gay community stress varies depending on the type of involvement in the gay community.

• GCII subscales were not directly associated with either social anxiety or depressive symptoms, indicating that gay community involvement alone does not predict mental health outcomes, but plays a context-dependent role. 

• Future research should further investigate the mechanisms underlying why different forms of gay community involvement moderate stress differently across social anxiety and depression outcomes.

• Longitudinal designs are needed to determine the role of gay community stress on social anxiety and depressive symptoms across time. Additionally, experimental designs are needed to determine whether gay community stress causes social anxiety and depressive symptoms.

1. Cochran, S. D., Björkenstam, C., & Mays, V. M. (2017). Sexual orientation differences in functional limitations, disability, and mental health services use: Results from the 2013-2014 National Health Interview Survey. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85(12), 1111-1121. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000243

2. Mahon, C. P., Lombard-Vance, R., Kiernan, G., Pachankis, J. E., & Gallagher, P. (2022). Social anxiety among sexual minority individuals: A systematic review. Psychology & Sexuality, 13(4), 818-862. https://doi.org/10.1080/19419899.2021.1936140

3. Denning, D. M., Venter, C. S., Gebhardt, E. S., & Brown, T. A. (2025). Associations between minority stress and depression and anxiety symptoms at the intersection of multiple identities in sexual minority people of colour. Stress and Health, 41(3), e70061. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.70061

4. Pachankis, J. E., Clark, K. A., Burton, C. L., Hughto, J. M. W., Bränström, R., & Keene, D. E. (2020). Sex, status, competition, and exclusion: Intraminority stress from within the gay community and gay and bisexual men's mental health. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(3), 713-740. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000282

5. Mahon, C. P., Pachankis, J. E., Kiernan, G., & Gallagher, P. (2021). Risk and protective factors for social anxiety among sexual minority individuals. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50(3), 1015-1032. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01845-1

6. Soulliard, Z. A., Maiolatesi, A. J., Manning, R. B., III, Wang, K., & Pachankis, J. E. (2025). The moderating role of sexual identity centrality in the association between gay community stress and social anxiety among sexual minority men. Journal of Affective Disorders, 388, 119755. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119755

7. Alvarez, J. C., Denning, D. M., Castro Lebron, J., Ho, V., Chen, S., & Brown, T. A. (2024). Differential effects of community involvement on eating disorder prevention outcomes in sexual minority men. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment & Prevention, 32(6), 782-797. https://doi.org/10.1080/10640266.2024.2319946

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) Human Subjects Committee at Miami University approved this study (#02293r).