Minority Stress Counseling for LGBTQ+ Individuals (MST)

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer+ (LGBTQ+) individuals experience a breadth of mental health disparities. Reducing these disparities is an area of key psychological research. Minority stress is theorized to be an underlying source of the disparities (Meyer, 2003). Minority stress can be conceptualized as the internalized stigma that results from experiences of social marginalization. By reducing minority stress, it is hypothesized that generalized mental illness indicators might be reduced and indicators of wellbeing increased.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Minority Stress
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Behavioral: Treatment as Usual (TAU)

Detailed Description

Adult participants will respond to advertisements by emailing a research assistant.

A research assistant will then arrange for a pre-screening interview to ensure inclusion criteria are met.

A research assistant will review informed consent and receive a signed informed consent during the pre-screening.

Participants who are accepted into the study will then be offered up to 12 sessions of ACT or receive an unstructured treatment as usual counseling condition delivered by graduate students in the UAB medical/clinical psychology program under the supervision of Dr. Borgogna. These sessions will be 45 minutes each and delivered in Dr. Borgogna's lab. During the first sessions a survey battery will be administered on a lab secure computer administered via Qualtrics. It will be re-administered at session six, and during the last session.

The survey will include a broad base of demographic, mental health, and minority stress measures.

Participants will be assigned a random number that will link their survey responses across sessions. Identifying information will not be gathered as part of data collection.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 80
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Nicholas Borgogna (Assistant Professor), PhD; Phone Number: 7579693677; Email: borgogna@uab.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • Alabama
    • Birmingham, Alabama, United States, 35294
      • Recruiting
      • University of Alabama at Birmingham
      • Contact: Nicholas Borgogna, PhD; Phone Number: 435258961; Email: borgogna@uab.edu
      • Contact: Nicholas Borgogna
      • Principal Investigator: Nicholas Borgogna, PhQ

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Must identify as non-heterosexual

Exclusion Criteria:

Suicide attempt within the past 12 months.

Current eating disorder.

Narcotics use within the past 3 months

Non-suicidal self-injury within the past 6 months.

Current/History of psychosis

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Treatment Group; Participants receiving acceptance and commitment therapy	Behavioral: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Up to 16 session of unstructured counseling therapy informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy tradition.
Active Comparator: Treatment as usual; Unstructured counseling intervention	Behavioral: Treatment as Usual (TAU); Unstructured counseling

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Alcohol Problems	Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test	16 Weeks
Depression	Patient Health Questionnaire-9	12 weeks
Anxiety	Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7	12 Weeks
Post Traumatic Stress	Patient Checklist-5	12 Weeks
Internalized Heterosexism	Internalized Homophobia Scale	12 Weeks
Discrimination	Daily Heterosexist Questionnaire	12 Weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Experiential Avoidance	Experiential Avoidance Rating Scale	16 Weeks
Affect	Positive Negative Affect Schedule	16 Weeks
Problematic Pornography Use	Brief Pornography Screen	12 Weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Alabama at Birmingham

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 15, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 15, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 24, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 24, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): September 26, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 11, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 6, 2025
• Last Verified: June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; Minority Stress
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-300013570; NBLAB1 (Other Identifier: UAB)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: deidentified data will be shared upon request
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No