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Alleah Bouley, Alex Johnson, Bethany Stoutamire, Elizabeth Straley UCARE Abstract: Academic Year 2015-2016 Advisor: Dr. Jacob Cheadle Population Neuroscience Approaches to Minority Discrimination and Health STATEMENT OF PURPOSE The primary purpose of our research is to explore the effects of social exclusion and discrimination on the mental and physical health and wellbeing of sexual minorities (gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals). Addressing this complicated issue is a team effort, so participation in this project will provide a novel set of research experiences for participating undergraduates. RESEARCH QUESTIONS Our UCARE research will address two important questions. The first question we will address is how is discrimination associated with self-reported mental health and health-related behaviors? The second question we plan to answer with our research is to what extent do prior experiences of discrimination predict differences in neural processing of social exclusion and rejection (such as differences in neurophysiological processing components and activation of brain regions in response to exclusionary stimuli), and do measures of the neural processing of social exclusion correlate with mental and physical health outcomes? IMPORTANCE Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals suffer higher mental health disorder prevalences, such as depression, substance use and abuse, and suicidality, compared to heterosexuals (Burgard, Cochran, and Mays 2005; Burton et al. 2013, 2013; Diaz et al. 2001; Hatzenbuehler 2009; King et al. 2008; Marshal et al. 2008; Meyer 2003). With recent estimates indicating that more than 8 million American adults identify as LGB, identifying mechanisms that may ameliorate negative outcomes in this population is imperative (Gates 2011). Researchers have conceptualized the cause for these higher rates as a symptom of stress (Hatzenbuehler, Nolen-Hoeksema, and Erickson 2008). In addition to personal experiences of social exclusion and rejection from identity-based discrimination, which ... |