“I get by with a little help from my friends”: The Relationship of LGBT Community Participation and Social Support to Smoking Frequency in Sexual Minority Women

Smoking rates among sexual minority women (SMW) are disproportionately high as compared to heterosexual populations. To investigate this disparity, we explored whether two sources of support, LGBT community participation and peer social support, serve to buffer against stress processes and reduce smoking frequency. The Michigan Smoking and Sexuality Study (M-SASS; N=484; 25% non-smokers) was a cross-sectional survey designed to investigate young SMW (YSMW; age 18 to 24) smoking behaviors and correlates. We tested two explanatory models of support and smoking frequency (i.e., never, some days, everyday) using multinomial regression. Model 1 addressed stress and LGBT community participation factors, and Model 2 addressed stress and peer social support. We find no support for the role of LGBT community participation as a protective factor for the smoking frequency of SMW (Model 1); however, peer social support decreased the odds of smoking for SMW (Model 2). SMW were more likely to be non-smokers than occasional smokers if they had greater peer social support (AOR=1.28). Furthermore, social support buffered the association between stress and smoking among occasional smokers, but not among everyday smokers. We discuss whether LGBT organizational participation is valid as a measure of community involvement for SMW, especially given recent critiques of these organizations as being more representative of sexual minority men. We highlight the protective role that peers play in the lives and health of SMW, and underscore the need to consider LGBT peer relationships when developing prevention and cessation programs for YSMW.