Healing from Heterosexism Through Expressive Writing

University of Massachusetts Boston

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Graduate Masters Theses Doctoral Dissertations and Masters Theses

12-31-2018

Healing fr Healing from Heter om Heterosexism Thr osexism Through Expr ough Expressive Writing

Kathleen M. Collins

University of Massachusetts Boston

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Collins, Kathleen M., "Healing from Heterosexism Through Expressive Writing" (2018). Graduate Masters

Theses. 530.

https://scholarworks.umb.edu/masters_theses/530

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HEALING FROM HETEROSEXISM THROUGH EXPRESSIVE WRITING

A Thesis Presented

by

KATHLEEN M. COLLINS

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies,

University of Massachusetts Boston,

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

December 2018

Clinical Psychology Program

© 2018 by Kathleen M. Collins

All rights reserved

HEALING FROM HETEROSEXISM THROUGH EXPRESSIVE WRITING

A Thesis Presented

by

KATHLEEN M. COLLINS

Approved as to style and content by:

________________________________________________

Heidi M. Levitt, Professor

Chairperson of Committee

________________________________________________

Alice S. Carter, Professor

Member

________________________________________________

Takuya Minami, Associate Professor

Member

_________________________________________

David W. Pantalone, Program Director

Clinical Psychology Program

_________________________________________

Lizabeth Roemer, Chair

Psychology Department

iv

ABSTRACT

HEALING FROM HETEROSEXISM THROUGH EXPRESSIVE WRITING

December 2018

Kathleen M. Collins, B.A., Sarah Lawrence College

M.A., New School for Social Research

M.A., University of Massachusetts Boston

Directed by Professor Heidi M. Levitt

Simply by existing within our society, LGBTQ people encounter widespread exposure to

heterosexist attitudes, behaviors, and policies on a daily basis that ignore, invalidate, or

outright discriminate against them. This marginalization contributes to myriad

psychological consequences such as depression, suicidality, anxiety, and substance abuse.

Despite the fact that LGBTQ people experience mental health issues and some

subsequently seek treatment, few interventions exist that specifically address LGBTQ

minority stressors; those that do exist tend to treat mental health consequences of societal

heterosexism, rather than offering ways to heal from heterosexist experiences directly. In

the current study, I explored the ability of three variations of online expressive writing

exercises to reduce distress related to experiencing a heterosexist event. In addition to

v

comparing baseline to post-intervention and follow-up scores on measures of

psychological distress (including depression, negative affect, trauma-related distress, and

internalized homophobia scales) between the three writing conditions and between

demographic groups, I conducted a qualitative task analysis on participant responses to

study the process by which participants benefitted from the writing exercises. This study

contributes to the development of population-specific interventions for LGBTQ people,

as well as to the understanding of the processes by which LGBTQ people derive benefit

from writing about heterosexist experiences.

vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First, I would like to thank my mentor Dr. Heidi Levitt for her guidance and

wisdom throughout the course of this project. I would also like to thank my committee

members Dr. Alice Carter and Dr. Takuya Minami for their valuable insight.

Second, I would like to thank my parents for their unwavering encouragement to

pursue my dreams. I also want to thank my partner Shanna for her love, support, and

ability to make me laugh throughout stressful times.

Finally, I would like to thank everyone who participated in this study for sharing

their stories. This project simply would not be possible without their vulnerability,

strength, and commitment to supporting LGBTQ research.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... vi

LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................... ix

LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... x

CHAPTER Page

1. SPECIFIC AIMS OF STUDY ...................................................... 1

Aim 1 ..................................................................................... 1

Aim 1a.............................................................................. 2

Aim 1b ............................................................................. 2

Aim 1c.............................................................................. 2

Aim 2 ..................................................................................... 2

Aim 3 ..................................................................................... 2

2. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE .................................... 4

Definition of Heterosexism.................................................... 6

Consequences of Heterosexism ............................................. 8

Mechanisms of Change Related to Heterosexism ................. 10

Expressive Writing Exercises................................................ 11

Emotion-Focused Adaptation of Expressive Writing............ 13

Current Study......................................................................... 14

3. METHOD ..................................................................................... 16

Participants............................................................................. 16

Quantitative analyses....................................................... 16

Qualitative analyses......................................................... 17

Recruitment ........................................................................... 19

Quantitative analyses....................................................... 19

Qualitative analyses......................................................... 20

Measures and Data Collection .............................................. 20

Quantitative analyses....................................................... 20

Qualitative analyses......................................................... 23

4. RESULTS ...................................................................................... 30

Quantitative Results............................................................... 30

Preliminary analyses........................................................ 30

Aim 1a ............................................................................. 31

Aim 1b ............................................................................. 34

Aim 1c ............................................................................. 36

Aim 2 ............................................................................... 37

viii

Qualitative Results................................................................. 46

Synthesized model of productive resolution.................... 46

Unproductive blocks ....................................................... 55

CHAPTER Page

5. DISCUSSION ............................................................................... 58

Interpreting Why the Control Condition Did Not Serve as a

Control Condition ............................................................ 60

Differentiating Long-Term and Short-Term Effects of

Expressive Writing .......................................................... 62

Conceptualizing Heterosexism as a Form of Trauma ........... 64

Exploring the Relationship Between Trauma and Depression 65

Critiquing Outcome Scores as Indicators of Progress ........... 67

Describing the Utility of the Task Analysis Results.............. 69

Strengths and Limitations...................................................... 72

Conclusion ............................................................................. 74

APPENDIX

A. EXPRESSIVE WRITING PROMPTS ........................................ 75

B. QUESTIONNAIRES .................................................................... 77

CESD-R ................................................................................ 77

PANAS ................................................................................. 78

IES-R ..................................................................................... 79

TIHS....................................................................................... 81

C. PROCESS RATING SCALE........................................................ 82

REFERENCE LIST ....................................................................................... 83

ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

1. Sample Demographics................................................................... 18

2. ANCOVA Summary Table of Mean Outcome Scores by Condition

after Controlling for Baseline Scores..................................... 32

3. Mixed ANOVA Summary Table for Condition ............................ 33

4. One-Way Repeated ANOVA Summary Table .............................. 34

5. ANCOVA Summary Table of Mean Outcome Scores Between

Demographic Groups after Controlling for Baseline Scores. 39

6. Mixed ANOVA Summary Table for Sexual Orientation .............. 41

7. Mixed ANOVA Summary Table for Gender Identity ................... 43

8. Mixed ANOVA Summary Table for Racial/Ethnic Identity ......... 46