Despite bisexual individuals being at increased risk for mental health and substance use problems, clinicians' ability to provide affirmative and competent care to bisexual clients is limited by their lack of bisexual-specific training. To address this common gap in training, this article provides a brief review of bisexual health disparities and the factors that influence them. Then, we describe a multi-level approach for improving the health and well-being of bisexual individuals. This approach addresses factors that influence health at the micro-level (e.g., strategies that clinicians can use to help bisexual clients cope with stigma-related stressors), mezzo-level (e.g., adaptations to clinical environments and training programs that promote bisexual-affirmative care), and macro-level (e.g., advocating for political change and implementing strategies to reduce prejudice against bisexual individuals at the population-level). Specifically, we describe how clinicians can adapt evidence-based interventions to tailor them to the needs of their bisexual clients. Additionally, we discuss the need for bisexual-affirmative clinical training and provide recommendations for how clinical training can be adapted to prepare clinicians to work effectively with bisexual clients. Finally, we describe how population-level interventions can be used to reduce prejudice against bisexual individuals in order to reduce bisexual health disparities. Given the striking health disparities affecting bisexual individuals, there is a critical need to develop, test, and disseminate interventions to improve the health of this population and to prepare clinicians to provide bisexual-affirmative care.
AbstractThis study examined whether relationship involvement and partner gender were associated with between‐person differences and within‐person fluctuation in positive and negative affect and alcohol use among people who are attracted to more than one gender or regardless of gender (e.g., bisexual, pansexual, queer; bi+). One hundred and ninety‐eight bi+ individuals (M age 26.97; 73.1% non‐Latinx White) completed a 28‐day diary study. Multilevel regression analyses modeled between‐person differences in daily affect and alcohol use as a function of relationship status and partner gender. ANCOVAs were conducted to examine differences in within‐person fluctuation. Results partially support past findings that relationship involvement may not confer benefits for bi+ people and that mixed‐gender partnerships could be particularly challenging. Future research directions are discussed.
AbstractThe 2016 U.S. Presidential Election provided a unique opportunity to examine how ageism and sexism may impact attitudes (perceived presidential qualities and endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes) toward Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Community participants (N= 875) indicated their attitudes and voting intentions 3 weeks before the election. Endorsement of positive and negative age stereotypes and perceived presidential qualities for Clinton and Trump varied based on participants' attitudes toward women, political stance (conservative/liberal), and demographic characteristics (racial/ethnic identification, education, gender identification). Individuals who perceived sexism to be more prevalent and perceived women as more competent in general had more positive attitudes toward Clinton, in contrast, only perceptions of lower prevalence of sexism (and not competence of women) predicted attitudes toward Trump. Individuals who perceived sexism as less prevalent viewed Clinton as less presidential and endorsed stronger negative age stereotypes for Clinton, while they viewed Trump as more presidential and endorsed stronger positive and weaker negative age stereotypes for Trump. Our findings suggest that both ageism and sexism present barriers for qualified women when pursuing positions of power. Implications for future research are discussed.