TY - JOUR TI - The impact of attraction and identity fluidity on depressive symptoms in young adults. DO - https://doi.org/doi:10.7282/T3HM5BNH PY - 2016 AB - Depression is a serious problem that can negatively impact emerging adults and may have a lasting effect on their health and development. Depression is the leading cause of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and other health problems. This study tested a path model in order to examine the impact of attraction and identity fluidity (i.e., reported changes in attraction or sexual orientation identity over time) on depressive symptoms, the mediating effects of stress, anxiety, support, and the moderating effect of gender on these relationships. First, the results showed that a substantial number of participants reported attraction and identity fluidity over the four waves of this study. Second, the findings showed the path model was an acceptable fit to the data. Third, sexuality factors like sexual orientation identity, fluid identity and fluid attraction, have unique contributions to depression, satisfaction with partner, stress and anxiety and should be evaluated separately. For example, fluid identity and fluid attraction led to significantly higher rates of depression while a sexual minority identity did not significantly impact depression for all participants. Finally, gender moderated the relationship between sexuality factors, support and mental health. Gender played a significant role in this study showing the clear difference between how men and women respond to stress, anxiety, support, and depression. These results suggest an urgent need to reevaluate how sexuality is viewed and that clinicians and scholars should be aware of the impact identity and attraction fluidity on mental health issues. Sexual minorities may feel anxiety about being stigmatized and rejected, then conceal their authentic identities or display behavioral incongruence, thereby increasing their stress and risk for mental health issues. Intervention strategies reducing vulnerability to mental health issues should focus on improving support factors (relationship satisfaction), to increase awareness of the prevalence of fluidity, reduce the impact of change stigma, even among heterosexuals who are fluid, and should address how gender impacts these relationships. Social workers, parents, and mental health professionals should consider sexuality, support, and other mental health factors in order to prevent or reduce the negative effects of depression. KW - Social Work KW - Sexual orientation KW - Sexual minority youth KW - Depression in adolescence LA - eng ER -