PREDICTING SELF-ESTEEM, WELL-BEING, AND DISTRESS IN A COHORT OF GAY MEN - THE IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL STIGMA, PERSONAL VISIBILITY, COMMUNITYNETWORKS, AND POSITIVE IDENTITY

Homosexual and bisexual men (N = 825) enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study in Chicago completed a 90-minute self-administered quest ionnaire that included the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, a Well-Being I ndex, and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist. Participants indicated their experiences with gay stigma, their visibility as gay men, their involv ement in the gay community, and their commitment to a positive gay ide ntity. Data from this predominantly white, young, educated, and middle -class cohort are consistent with a structural model in which cultural stigma is negatively associated with positive self-perceptions. This within-group result contrasts sharply with between-group results that indicate our gay cohort was neither particularly low in global self-es teem nor high in psychological distress when compared to nonstigmatize d samples.