Review of Factors impacting Mental Health of LGBT Individuals following Sexual Violence

Extensive research has been done on sexual violence and post-victimization experiences; however, little is known about its prevalence and impact on LGBT individuals. Studies have shown that individuals who tend to deviate from the acceptable heterosexual and cisgender norms are more likely to be victims of sexual violence as an attempt by the society to maintain unequal gender roles. This poster reviewed the literature to examine the impact of stigma and low social support on the mental health of LGBT individuals following sexual violence. It was found that social conditions—invisibility, isolation, and discrimination—significantly impact the experiences of LGBT sexual assault survivors. Fear of rejection and isolation from family and friends and being a potential target of homophobia by service providers, law enforcement, and health care professionals, are revealed to be some of the major barriers that LGBT individuals face when seeking help after sexual violence. Lack of social support was linked with higher levels of mental health problems, depression, suicidal ideation, drug use, and anxiety in LGBT adolescents. Results highlight an apparent gap in research in part because most of it is non-empirical in nature, thus calling for data-based research. Further, most studies assumed the participants to be heterosexual and did not assess for different sexual orientations. Measurement tools developed in recent years are likely to be low on reliability and require replication. Last, randomization is difficult within this population as data for participants who have not come out yet or are questioning their identity is lacking. Future research is needed in these areas to better understand the unique experiences of LGBT individuals

Supporting a Racially Diverse Facial Dataset: Normative Valence and Arousal Ratings Across Race and Moderation by Race

The primary goal of this project was to collect normative emotional valence and arousal ratings using the RADIATE facial database. The RADIATE database is one of the few that is racially diverse, yet it is underutilized, due in part to a lack of normative valence and arousal ratings. A secondary goal was to explore whether the race of the rater moderated emotion ratings. As part of an ongoing study, 204 participants (Asian: 9, Black: 25, Latinx: 39, White: 131) were randomly assigned to one of 10 blocks of 36 faces. Each block included faces counterbalanced on race, gender, and emotion so that each participant rated an identical number of faces with respect to these categories. Participants viewed faces in Qualtrics and rated each on valence (from 1-9, unpleasant to pleasant) and arousal (from 1-9, low to high). A 4-way Race of Rater x Race of Face x Emotion x Gender repeated-measures ANOVA with repeated-measures on the last 3 factors was used for valence and arousal ratings. As expected, across racial face categories, happy faces were rated as more pleasant (M = 6.50) and sad faces as more unpleasant (M = 3.03). In addition, happy (M = 4.29) faces were rated more emotionally arousing than sad (M = 3.76) and neutral faces (M = 3.29). The race of the rater moderated valence but not arousal ratings. Black raters rated Asian females as happier than Asian males and Latinx raters rated Latinas as sadder than Latinos, with no other evident effects. Present results contribute to sparse valence and arousal data for the RADIATE dataset. Results further suggest that emotional faces are not rated in a universal manner as some emotion theories presume. Implications of the results and future research directions are discussed