Mindfulness, self-esteem and positive states of mind: Correlates of psychological quality of life in an LGBT sample

LGBT individuals experience stress from their sexual minority status (Meyer, 2004), threatening their self-esteem (Herek & Gillis, 2009) and psychological quality of life (Radkowsky & Siegel, 1997). Mindfulness and positive states of mind (PSOM) are associated with increased mental health (Rasmussen & Pidgeon, 2011); however, this has not been studied with LGBT individuals. We hypothesize that mindfulness, self-esteem and PSOM explain a significant proportion of variance of psychological QOL in LGBT individuals. Participants completed the Mental Health subscale of the Short Form-36 Health Survey (a quality of life measure; Ware & Sherbourne, 1992), Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (Bear, Smith & Allen, 2004), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, Schaler & Schoenbach, 1989), and PSOM Scale (Horowitz, Adler & Kegeles, 1988). Our diverse, convenience sample of 177 participants (66% White, 12% Black, 11% Latino) had a mean age of 34.4 years (SD = 13.8). For our hierarchical regression analysis, we simultaneously entered demographics into the first block of our model and variables of interest into our second block. Our model accounted for 59% of variance in mental health (adj R2 = .59, F (6,170) = 43.0, p<.001). Accepting without judgment mindfulness (â = .16, t = 2.65, p< .001), self-esteem (â = .52, t = 8.43, p<.001) and PSOM (â = .52, t = 4.21, p<.001) predicted psychological QOL. Findings suggest public health research should incorporate mindfulness, self-esteem and PSOM when addressing the well-being of sexual minorities.