Sexual orientation concealment, hope, and depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men: a moderated-moderation model

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men is cause for concern. This study aimed to investigate whether hope and its two components (agency and pathways) moderated the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms in gay and bisexual men and whether the moderating effects were conditional on sexual orientation. Participants were 197 gay men aged 18 to 71 years (M = 35.13 years, SD = 12.18 years) and 212 bisexual men aged 18 to 66 years (M = 29.24 years, SD = 10.46 years) who completed The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, The Sexual Orientation Concealment Scale, and The Adult Hope Scale. Results did not support the moderating role of hope, agency, or pathways. The interaction between sexual orientation and pathways was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Higher levels of pathways were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms for both groups of men, however, the association was stronger for gay men compared with bisexual men. Higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Interventions aimed at increasing hope may be beneficial for reducing depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men.

KEYWORDS:

• Hope
• depressive symptoms
• concealment
• gay men
• bisexual men

The prevalence of depressive symptoms is disproportionally higher among sexual minority men compared to heterosexual men (Escobar-Viera et al., 2018; Ross et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2014). Among sexual minority men, bisexual men report higher levels of depressive symptoms than gay men (Chan et al., 2020; Hill et al., 2020). The minority stress model provides a framework to understand the high rates of depressive symptoms among sexual minority men, as well as among bisexual men.

Minority stress model

The minority stress model positions the increased rates of depressive symptoms experienced by gay and bisexual men as an outcome of their stigmatised social category, and the unique stressors that this creates (Meyer, 2003). These stressors occur on a continuum from distal (i.e. external) to proximal (i.e. internal) minority stress (Meyer, 2003, 2015). Distal minority stressors are objective, external, and out of the individual’s control and include discrimination and rejection (Meyer, 2003, 2015). The experience of these distal stressors often leads to the development of proximal stressors, defined as the psychological processes that rely on an individual’s unique internal processing, resulting in cognitions and behaviours that attempt to manage stressors, such as sexual orientation concealment, anticipating rejection, and internalised homophobia (Meyer, 2003, 2015).

The four stressors identified in the minority stress model (prejudice, discrimination, internalised homophobia, and sexual orientation concealment) have individually been shown to be associated with adverse mental health outcomes in gay and bisexual men (Badgett, 1995; Cohen et al., 2016; Feinstein et al., 2012). Of these stressors, sexual orientation concealment has been less studied, and the existing research has been flawed by measurement issues.

Sexual orientation concealment

Throughout the research, managing a stigmatised sexual minority status has been conceptualised differently, with several constructs often used interchangeably. Sexual orientation concealment is the process of withholding information in a deliberate, conscious, and active manner to hide one’s sexual minority status, and is commonly used to evade the psychological stress that the anticipation or expectation of a stressor creates (Brennan et al., 2021; Meyer, 2015; Pachankis, 2007). In contrast, the other commonly used constructs, disclosure and outness, conceptualise the degree to which a sexual minority orientation is revealed (Jackson & Mohr, 2016) and the degree to which an individual is open about their sexual orientation (Feinstein et al., 2019), respectively. While concealment and disclosure of sexual orientation are often used to understand depressive symptoms, their psychological functions are different, and so too are their associations with mental health indices (Bosson et al., 2012; Jackson & Mohr, 2016; Pachankis, 2007). Jackson and Mohr (2016) investigated concealment behaviour, concealment motivation, and nondisclosure and confirmed that the constructs are not interchangeable predictors of psychological health. They found that only concealment behaviour predicted depressive symptoms. Pachankis et al. (2020) demonstrated in their meta-analysis that the association between one aspect of concealment (lack of open behaviour) and depressive symptoms is stronger than the association between other aspects of concealment (lack of active disclosure, general openness, or public knowledge) and depressive symptoms. Using these constructs interchangeably significantly limits the interpretation of research findings and their implications.

Sexual orientation concealment is associated with adverse mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms (Brennan et al., 2021; Pachankis et al., 2020). A meta-analysis by Pachankis et al. (2020) demonstrated a relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptomatology, noting that the relationship was conditional on sexual orientation. Studies using exclusively bisexual samples reported a stronger association between concealment (defined as a lack of open behaviour) and internalising mental health problems than those studies that used samples of heterogeneous sexual minority participants (Pachankis et al., 2020). In contrast, the associations between lack of active disclosure and internalising disorders and between public knowledge of one’s sexual orientation and internalising disorders were weaker for samples that were exclusively bisexual adults than samples that were heterogeneous sexual minority adults (Pachankis et al., 2020). Another study showed that the related construct of outness was associated with depressive symptoms among bisexual adults, but not among gay/lesbian adults (Feinstein et al., 2019). While it is known that bisexual adults report higher levels of sexual orientation concealment (Mohr et al., 2017) and lower levels of outness (Feinstein et al., 2019) and self-disclosure (Balsam & Mohr, 2007) than gay/lesbian adults, further investigation into whether the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms is stronger for bisexual men is required.

As sexual orientation concealment is consistently associated with depressive symptoms, research is required to understand how the psychological health of gay and bisexual men who conceal their sexual orientation can be protected. Hope is associated with resilience among the general population (C. R. R. Snyder et al., 2005) and is a key factor in Kwon’s (2013) framework of resilience in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals. However, hope has received scant attention as a potential protective factor among sexual minority men.

Hope

Hope, defined as a stable set of cognitions related to goal behaviour (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991), can play a protective role in psychological well-being (Griggs, 2017; Visser et al., 2013). Hope comprises two distinct but interrelated components, agency and pathways (Kwok & Gu, 2019; C. R. Snyder, 2000). Agency is defined as the determination and belief an individual possesses to undertake and maintain behaviours towards achieving a goal, whereas pathways is defined as the capabilities someone perceives themselves having to facilitate a route and overcome barriers to achieve their goal (C. R. Snyder, 2000; C. R. Snyder et al., 1991).

Previous research has shown that higher levels of hope are associated with higher levels of self-esteem (Valle et al., 2006), improved coping (Griggs, 2017), a greater ability to maintain life satisfaction (Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010), an overall increased level of well-being (Griggs, 2017; Hirsch et al., 2017), and fewer depressive symptoms (Kwok & Gu, 2019; Visser et al., 2013). The role of hope is largely understudied among sexual minority adults, and even more so among gay and bisexual men specifically. However, as with the general population, the positive association between hope and well-being (Hirsch et al., 2017; Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010; Omer, 2016) and the negative association between hope and depressive symptoms (Kwok & Gu, 2019) have been shown in the few studies among sexual minority adults.

In addition to the direct relationship between hope and depressive symptoms, hope has been shown to moderate the relationship between a hostile work environment and life satisfaction among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults (Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010). Kwon and Hugelshofer (2010) used the Trait Hope Scale (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991) to measure hope and its components, agency and pathways. Results showed that when experiencing a hostile work environment related to their sexual orientation, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) people with higher levels of hope and agency, but not pathways, reported higher levels of life satisfaction. Results suggest that hope, and particularly agency, may be protective factors for LGB adults experiencing hostility related to their sexual orientation.

The finding that high levels of hope and agency moderated the relationship between experiencing a hostile workplace and lower life satisfaction in sexual minority individuals provides a key direction for future research (Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010). The same stressors that often create hostile workplaces for sexual minority adults, prejudice and discrimination (Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010), are the same stressors that lead to sexual orientation concealment. Hope therefore might weaken the association between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms among sexual minority men.

Present study and hypothesis

The current study aimed to investigate levels of sexual orientation concealment, hope, and depressive symptoms and the potential protective role of hope and its two components (agency and pathways) in moderating the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men. It was predicted that higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways will weaken the association between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms. Additionally, we explored whether the moderating role of hope, agency, and pathways was conditional on sexual orientation.

Method

Participants

The sample was comprised of 197 gay men aged between 18 and 71 years (M = 35.13 years, SD = 12.18) and 212 bisexual men aged between 18 and 66 years (M = 29.24 years, SD = 10.46). A statistical power analysis using G*Power 3 Version 3.1.9.6 (Faul et al., 2007) conducted for multiple regressions with fourteen predictor variables, power of .95, small to medium effect size (.07), and an alpha of .05, indicated a sample of 271 men was required. Participation was voluntary and recruitment occurred online, utilising a snowballing technique on social media and the online forum Reddit.

Participants selected their sexual orientation from a list (e.g. gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual) or self-described their sexual orientation if it was not listed. Men who identified as gay or bisexual were included in the study. As seen in Table 1, the majority of participants were white, cisgender, unpartnered, employed, had an undergraduate or postgraduate education, had a middle-to-low income, and were out to most people they knew. Half the men lived in the US (n = 222, 54.3%), with Europe (n = 96, 23.5%), Canada (n = 28, 6.8%), and Australia (n = 26, 6.4%) being the next most represented countries/regions.

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of participants.

	Gay men		Bisexual men		Total sample
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Gender
Cisgender	192	97.5	199	93.9	391	95.6
Transgender	5	2.5	13	6.1	18	4.4
Race/Ethnicity
White	150	76.1	178	84.0	328	80.2
People of Color	47	23.9	34	16.0	81	19.8
Relationship status
Partnered	90	45.7	78	41.0	177	43.3
Unpartnered	107	54.3	125	59.0	232	56.7
Education
Primary/Secondary school	38	19.3	77	36.3	115	28.1
Vocational Training	19	9.6	25	11.8	44	10.8
Undergraduate university	68	34.5	72	34.0	140	34.2
Postgraduate university	72	36.5	38	17.9	110	26.9
Employment
Unemployed	16	8.1	30	14.2	46	11.2
Part-time	56	28.4	76	35.8	132	32.3
Full-time work	125	63.5	106	50.0	231	56.5
Income
Low income	48	24.4	97	45.8	145	35.3
Middle income	102	51.8	91	42.9	193	47.2
High income	47	23.9	24	11.3	71	17.1
Disclosure
0%–25%	39	19.8	126	59.4	165	40.3
26% 50%	25	12.7	28	13.2	53	13.0
51%-75%	34	17.3	31	14.6	65	15.9
76%-100%	99	50.3	27	12.7	126	30.8

Materials

Information statement

Participants were initially presented with an information statement that explained voluntary participation, an overview of the types of questions asked, and a comprehensive list of resources that participants could access should the survey cause distress. Participants were informed that completing the survey indicated consent and that they could withdraw before completing the survey and that doing so would result in their data being destroyed. Given the anonymous nature of the study, participants were informed that following the submission of their responses withdrawing their data was not possible.

Demographics

Demographic characteristics recorded were age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender assigned at birth, percentage of people aware of their sexual orientation, country of residence, race/ethnicity, relationship status, highest education level completed, employment status, and income status.

Sexual orientation concealment measure

Sexual orientation concealment was measured using The Sexual Orientation Concealment Scale (Jackson & Mohr, 2016). The scale has 6-items that assess LGB individuals’ active concealment of their minority sexual orientation over the past two weeks. Items are scored on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) through to 5 (all the time). Higher scores represent higher levels of concealment. Good internal consistency has been reported for the scale (Cronbach’s a = .75) among LGB individuals (Jackson & Mohr, 2016). Good internal consistency was reported in this sample (Cronbach’s α = .84).

Hope measure

Hope was measured using the 12-item Adult Hope Scale (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991). The scale is comprised of three subscales with four items assessing pathways (e.g. ‘there are lots of ways around any problem’), four assessing agency (e.g. ‘I energetically pursue my goals’), and four distractor items (e.g. ‘I feel tired most of the time’) (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991). Participants responded to each item using an 8-point Likert scale from 1 (false) to 8 (definitely true) (C. R. Snyder, 2002). Higher scores indicated higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways. Internal consistency for this measure among LGB individuals has been reported as good for agency (Cronbach’s a = .80) and pathways (Cronbach’s a = .79) and the total scale (Cronbach’s a = .85) (Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010). Good internal consistency was reported for the current sample (Total score: Cronbach’s α = .85; agency: Cronbach’s α = .85, pathways: Cronbach’s α = .82).

Depressive symptoms measure

The 20-item Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale assessed depressive symptoms over the past week (Radloff, 1977). The scale employs the use of a 4-point Likert scale, from 0 (rarely or none of the time) to 3 (most or almost most of the time). Scores range from 0–60, with scores of 16 or above indicating clinically significant depressive symptoms (Radloff, 1977). The measure has demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .93) in samples of gay and bisexual men (Moody et al., 2018), as well as in this sample (Cronbach’s α = .93).

Procedure

The research protocol was approved by Charles Sturt University’s Human Research Ethics Committee (application H21097). Recruitment occurred across social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) and various threads on the online forum Reddit; including general topic threads and threads specific to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer/questioning, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) audience. QuestionPro© was used to conduct the survey and participation was self-selected, voluntary, and anonymous. Participants were presented with an information statement that detailed the requirements and nature of the study and supports that may be accessed if required. Informed consent was provided before proceeding with the survey. The survey commenced with the demographic questions before each of the psychometric tests were randomly presented to minimise order effects. All questions were mandatory and progression through the survey was not possible with incomplete responses. The study concluded with a debriefing statement, summarising the aim of the study, and again, presented helpline services that participants may access. Participation in the survey averaged 8 minutes in duration and withdrawal was possible at any point in time by closing the survey web browser. The completion rate of the survey was 72.39%, with 565 eligible participants beginning the survey and 409 of these participants completing the survey in full.

Data analysis

Variables that have known relationships with depressive symptoms in sexual minority adults were controlled for in all analyses. These variables were age, relationship status, education (Prestage et al., 2018), gender identity (Plöderl & Tremblay, 2015), race, employment status (Schrimshaw et al., 2013), and income (Oginni et al., 2018).

Independent samples t-tests tested for differences between gay and bisexual men’s scores on the Sexual Orientation Concealment Scale, The Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, and the Adult Hope Scale (total hope scores, and agency and pathways scores). Bivariate and partial correlations were conducted to determine the interrelations between the variables.

Using PROCESS macro version 3.5.3 (Model 3; Hayes, 2018) in SPSS, three separate moderated moderation analyses were run to investigate whether hope (and its components) moderate the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms and whether any moderating effects were conditional on sexual orientation. Bootstrapping was set at 10,000 and confidence intervals (CI) at 95% were used to identify significant variables. The significance of the moderation effect was supported if the confidence interval for the interaction term did not include zero. The use of mean centring was employed. Significant interactions were probed using simple slopes analysis at −1SD, M, and + 1SD of the mean of the moderator.

Results

Preliminary analyses

Clinically significant levels of depressive symptomatology were reported in more than half of the participants (N = 264, 64.5%), defined as scores of 16 or higher on the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977). A Chi-square test of independence indicated no significant association between sexual orientation and clinically significant depressive symptoms X² (1, N = 409) = 3.21, p = .07, phi = .09. The results of the independent-samples t-tests comparing scores for gay and bisexual men on sexual orientation concealment, depressive symptoms, hope, agency, and pathways are shown in Table 2. Bisexual men scored significantly higher than gay men on sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptomatology, whereas gay men scored significantly higher on hope and agency.

Table 2. Mean scores and independent samples t-tests for psychometric scales.

	Gay men		Bisexual men
Variable	M	SD	M	SD	t	Cohen’s d
Concealment	10.57	5.32	13.30	5.72	−4.98**	.49
Depressive Symptoms	20.29	12.82	24.09	12.82	−3.08*	.30
Hope	45.75	10.25	42.15	11.27	3.37**	.33
Agency	22.20	6.01	19.49	6.71	4.30**	.30
Pathways	23.55	5.12	22.67	5.39	1.70	.17

*p < .01. **p < .001.

Table 3 shows the bivariate and partial correlations between the variables. Bivariate and partial correlations indicated that higher levels of sexual orientation concealment and lower levels of hope, agency, and pathways were significantly associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Table 3. Correlations between variables.

Variable	1	2	3	4	5
(1) Concealment	-	.40*	−.19*	−.28*	−.25*
(2) Depressive Symptoms	.36**	-	−.65*	−.59*	−.67*
(3) Agency	−.11**	−.59**	-	.72*	.94*
(4) Pathways	−.24**	−.54**	.68**	-	.91*
(5) Hope	−.19**	−.62**	.93**	.91**	-

Note: Bivariate correlations are above the diagonal and partial correlations controlling for age, relationship status, education, employment status, gender identity, race, and income are below the diagonal.

*p < .01.**p < .001.

Moderated moderation models

Hope

The results of the moderated moderation analysis investigating total hope scores and sexual orientation as moderators of the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms are shown in Table 4. The analysis found that 52% of the variance in depressive symptoms could be explained by variables within the model, R² = .52, F(10, 408) = 31.91, p < .001.

Table 4. Summary of moderated moderation models.

	Hope		Pathways		Agency
Variable	B	95% CI	B	95% CI	B	95% CI
Constant	27.64*	[18.48, 36.80]	30.20**	[20.32, 40.07]	27.94*	[18.73, 37.14]
Concealment	0.54*	[0.37, 0.71]	0.53**	[0.34, 0.72]	0.63*	[0.46, 0.80]
Moderator	−0.69*	[−0.78, −0.59]	−1.18**	[−1.39, −0.98]	−1.13*	[−1.30, −0.97]
Sexual Orientation^a	−0.55	[−1.54, 0.43]	−0.08	[−1.15, 0.10]	−0.92	[−1.90, 0.06]
Concealment x Moderator	0.01	[−0.01, 0.02]	0.02	[−0.01, 0.05]	0.01	[−0.02, 0.04]
Concealment x Sexual Orientation	0.03	[−0.14, 0.21]	0.06	[−0.13, 0.25]	−0.02	[−0.20, 0.15]
Moderator x Sexual Orientation	0.08	[−0.01, 0.17]	0.21*	[0.01, 0.41]	0.04	[−0.11, 0.19]
Concealment x Moderator x Sexual Orientation	−0.01	[−0.02, 0.01]	−0.01	[−0.04, 0.02]	−0.03	[−0.05, 0.00]
Age	−0.03	[−0.13, 0.07]	−0.04	[−0.15, 0.06]	−0.02	[−0.12, 0.08]
Relationship Status^b	1.76	[−0.23, 3.74]	1.89	[−0.25, 4.03]	1.63	[−0.37, 3.63]
Education	−0.22	[−1.14, 0.71]	−0.62	[−1.60, 0.37]	−0.10	[−1.04, 0.85]
Employment	−0.33	[−1.81, 1.15]	−0.78	[−2.36, 0.80]	−0.00	[−1.50, 1.50]
Income	−0.47	[−2.11, 1.18]	−1.35	[−3.11, 0.40]	−0.45	[−2.12, 1.21]
Race^c	−0.25	[−2.54, 2.04]	−0.12	[−2.59, 2.34]	−0.35	[−2.67, 1.96]
Gender Identity^d	−1.64	[−6.04, 2.75]	−1.12	[−5.87, 3.62]	−2.35	[−6.78, 2.08]

Note: ^a0 = gay, 1 = bisexual. ^b0 = partnered, 1 = unpartnered ^c0 = White, 1 = People of Color. ^d0 = transgender, 1 = cisgender.

*p < .05. **p < .001.

The three-way interaction between sexual orientation concealment, hope, and sexual orientation was not significant. The two-way interaction between sexual orientation concealment and hope was also not significant. Higher levels of sexual orientation concealment and lower levels of hope were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms.

Hope subscales: agency and pathways

The components of agency and pathways were analysed separately for their moderating effects on the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms. Results are shown in Table 4. The analysis found that for agency, 52% of the variance in depressive symptoms could be explained by the variables within the model, R² = .52, F(10, 408) = 42.79, p < .001, and for pathways 44% of the variance in depressive symptoms could be explained by the variables within the model R² = .44, F(10, 408) = 31.79, p < .001.

The three-way interaction between sexual orientation concealment, agency, and sexual orientation was not significantly related to depressive symptoms. The two-way interaction between sexual orientation concealment and agency was also not significant. Higher levels of agency and lower levels of sexual orientation concealment were related to lower levels of depressive symptoms.

The three-way interaction between concealment, pathways, and sexual orientation was not significantly related to depressive symptoms. The two-way interaction between pathways and sexual orientation was significantly associated with depressive symptoms. Additionally, pathways and concealment were both significantly related to depressive symptoms. Higher levels of pathways and lower levels of sexual orientation concealment were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms.

The interaction between pathways and sexual orientation is shown in Figure 1. Higher levels of pathways were related to lower levels of depressive symptoms for both gay men, B = −1.58, 95% CI = −1.86, −1.29, and bisexual men, B = −1.05, 95% CI = −1.31, −0.79; however, the relationship observed is significantly stronger for gay men.

Figure 1. The interaction between pathways and sexual orientation predicting depressive symptoms.

Discussion

The current study aimed to investigate whether hope and its two components (agency and pathways) act as protective factors by moderating the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men. Results did not support the hypothesis that the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms would weaken as levels of hope, agency, and pathways increased. Additionally, the moderating effect of hope was not conditional on sexual orientation.

Hope, agency, and pathways as moderators

The results of this study did not support the hypothesis and are inconsistent with Kwon and Hugelshofer’s (2010) study that showed that hope moderated the relationship between a hostile work environment and life satisfaction among LGB adults. It is possible hope’s capacity to moderate may depend on the risk and outcome factors being explored. It is likely, however, that the preponderance of low sexual orientation concealment scores explains the lack of support for the moderating effect of hope. The challenge model of resilience (Hollister‐Wagner et al., 2001) proposes a curvilinear relation between risk and outcome, where a risk factor must reach a certain threshold to activate the protective factor (Hollister‐Wagner et al., 2001). Activation of the protective factor can reduce the impact of the risk factor and, subsequently, reduce levels of the negative outcome (Hollister‐Wagner et al., 2001). Inspection of the sexual orientation concealment scores in the current sample shows they were at low levels. As such, concealment scores were negatively skewed, with only 12.4% of participants reporting scores of 20 or higher on the measure, where 30 was the maximum possible score. Therefore, in the context of the challenge model, levels of sexual orientation concealment reported by the sample may have not reached the threshold at which the protective factor of hope would be activated. The results in this study likely reflected the sample rather than an inability of hope to moderate the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms.

It may also be that hope acts as a protective factor through a mediation pathway, rather than through moderation. Theoretically, higher levels of hope may be associated with a decreased need for gay and bisexual men to engage in sexual orientation concealment, and these lower levels of sexual orientation concealment would be associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Future research could explore this meditation model.

Sexual orientation as a moderator

An exploratory aim was to investigate whether any moderating effects of hope, agency, and pathways were conditional on sexual orientation. With no significant three-way interactions reported, the moderating potential of hope being conditional on sexual orientation was not found. However, a significant two-way interaction was found between sexual orientation and pathways. The relationship between higher levels of pathways and lower levels of depressive symptoms was significant for both groups of men, however, it was stronger for gay men than bisexual men. The difference in the strength of the relationship between pathways and depressive symptoms for gay and bisexual men is complimentary to previous research (Dodge et al., 2012). The additional minority stress that bisexual men experience, being stigma and prejudice from the LGBTQIA+ community in addition to the heterosexual population, likely means that they require protective factors that are more multifaceted, with stronger power for their protective capabilities to operate as effectively as they do for gay men. Rafferty et al. (2020) investigated pathways in parents facing unique stressors stemming from having a child who is medically compromised and found that pathways was strengthened when networks of people were cultivated and that supportive, understanding relationships were enhanced. Given the nature of the additional minority stress bisexual men face, a deficit in supportive, understanding relationships is often experienced (Dodge et al., 2012). As such, it is unsurprising that pathways is less protective in bisexual men than in gay men.

Main effects of hope and sexual orientation concealment

Consistent with previous research in general (Kwok & Gu, 2019; Visser et al., 2013) and sexual minority (Kwok & Gu, 2019) samples, higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms in this sample of gay and bisexual men. Being motivated to achieve goals, along with having the ability to generate strategies to achieve those goals, especially when challenges are experienced, is beneficial for mental health (C. R. Snyder et al., 1991).

Higher levels of sexual orientation concealment were related to higher levels of depressive symptoms, consistent with prior research (Brennan et al., 2021; Pachankis et al., 2020). While gay and bisexual men report engaging in sexual orientation concealment to avoid negative experiences of stigma and prejudice (Meyer, 2003, 2015; Pachankis, 2007), this behaviour is associated with adverse mental health outcomes (Pachankis, 2007). Concealing a minority sexual orientation status often creates anxiety in anticipation of being exposed, and isolation due to intentional separation from individuals of the same stigmatised minority group causing the individual to feel incongruent from their true self (Pachankis, 2007). Over time, this sexual orientation concealment, along with the cognitive disconnect and psychosocial implications generated, often results in a deteriorated mental health status (Ding et al., 2020; Pachankis, 2007).

Group differences

This study found that bisexual men reported concealing their sexual orientation and experiencing depressive symptoms significantly more than gay men, likely because of the additional minority stress that bisexual men face; providing support for prior literature that has consistently reported a difference (Bagley & Tremblay, 1997; Balsam & Mohr, 2007; Potoczniak et al., 2007). These group differences are explained consistently throughout the literature by the additional minority stress that bisexual men encounter (Plöderl & Tremblay, 2015; Ross et al., 2018).

When levels of hope in gay and bisexual men were compared, results indicated that gay men reported significantly higher levels of hope and agency than bisexual men. These higher levels of hope and agency reported by gay men suggest that they likely experience more positive outcomes, improved coping, and an overall increased level of well-being than bisexual men (Griggs, 2017; Hirsch et al., 2017; Kwon & Hugelshofer, 2010; Valle et al., 2006). Also, it may be that the additional minority stressors experienced by bisexual men impact their levels of hope, particularly their motivation (agency) to pursue goals in the face of these additional obstacles. Further research using mixed methods would be beneficial to explore whether the experiences of minority stress impact hope among bisexual men.

Implications

While hope did not significantly moderate the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms in gay and bisexual men, higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways were directly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Implementing clinical strategies and treatments that increase levels of hope would likely result in a decreased prevalence of depressive symptoms amongst gay and bisexual men. Empirical research amongst gay and bisexual men that explores the implementation of hope-based clinical interventions is scarce, however, such interventions have been found effective in increasing hope (Shekarabi-Ahari et al., 2012) and agency (Cheavens et al., 2006), and decreasing depressive symptoms (Cheavens et al., 2006; KhalediSardashti et al., 2018) in adult samples. Whether hope therapy is efficacious among gay and bisexual men is unknown. However, existing evidence indicates it is a worthy direction for future research, particularly among bisexual men who have lower levels of hope and agency than gay men.

Limitations and future directions

The current study contained several limiting factors. While participation occurred across a range of countries, the final sample consisted of predominately white individuals located in the US. The sample under-represents gay and bisexual men of colour who present with a double minority status (Zamboni & Crawford, 2007). Additionally, recruitment occurred predominantly via online LGBTQIA+ communities and may have resulted in levels of depressive symptoms, hope, and sexual orientation concealment that are not representative of the wider population (Meyer & Wilson, 2009). Future research should address this by avoiding sampling primarily amongst online LGBTQIA+ communities and should conduct recruitment across a varied number of avenues (McCormack, 2014). Addressing this limitation may alleviate any contribution that this had in the negative skew in sexual orientation concealment scores found in the present study.

The sample was limited to gay and bisexual men to enable a large enough sample of each group to be recruited and compared. Future research should explore other sexual identities as these findings may not generalise. Also, the cross-sectional design of this study removes the possibility of inferring causation.

Given the association between hope and depressive symptoms, future research should continue to explore the protective role that hope could play in the mental health of gay and bisexual men. One possibility to be explored is whether hope operates as a protective factor via mediation, such that higher levels of hope are associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms via lower levels of concealment of sexual orientation. Additionally, while hope was not found to be a significant moderator of the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms, understanding protective factors remains fundamental in decreasing depressive symptoms amongst sexual minority individuals (Kwon, 2013). As such, alternative protective factors that might moderate this relationship should be explored in future research. One such factor is self-compassion. ‘Self-compassion … involves being touched by and open to one’s own suffering, not avoiding or disconnecting from it, generating the desire to alleviate one’s suffering and to heal oneself with kindness’ (Neff, 2003, p. 87). Self-compassion is associated with less psychopathology (see Muris & Petrocchi, 2017 for a meta-analysis), and specifically fewer depressive symptoms among gay men (Matos et al., 2017) and sexual minority men and women (Shakeshaft & McLaren, 2022). Future research should investigate whether self-compassion moderates the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms in gay and bisexual men.

Conclusion

The current study examined whether hope acts as a protective factor for gay and bisexual men by weakening the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms and to determine if this moderation effect was conditional on sexual orientation. Findings indicated that while hope and its components, agency and pathways, did not moderate the relationship between sexual orientation concealment and depressive symptoms, higher levels of hope, agency, and pathways were significantly associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. Additionally, results indicated that higher levels of pathways were more strongly related to lower levels of depressive symptoms for gay men than for bisexual men. Future research could investigate whether hope can be protective against depressive symptoms indirectly through lower levels of concealment of sexual orientation. The role of sexual orientation should continue to be explored in future research due to the unique experiences of gay and bisexual men. Increasing our understanding of protective factors will help facilitate effective clinical interventions aimed at decreasing the prevalence of depressive symptoms among gay and bisexual men.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset generated during the current study is available at https://osf.io/db3h7/.

Additional information

Funding

There is no funding resource involved in this study.