Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory (Goldbach, Schrager, & Mamey, 2016)

• Populations: American Sexual minority Adolescents
• Age ranges: 14-17, 13-18
• Languages: English
• Countries: United States

Items

Subscales:

• Social marginalization (8)
  
• family rejection (11)
  
• internalized homonegativity (7)
  
• identity management (3)
  
• homonegative climate (4)
  
• intersectionality (3)
  
• negative disclosure experiences (5)
  
• religion (5)
  
• negative expectancies (3)
  
• homonegative communication (5)
  
• minority stress related to employment (10)

Scale reported, items not available by subscale:

• 1. I am questioning how to label my sexual orientation.
• 2. I am having trouble accepting that I am LGBTQ.
• 3. I feel pressured to label myself as gay or lesbian.
• 4. I am concerned that if I am LGBTQ, I will have a worse life than if I were straight.
• 5. A family member told other family members that I am LGBTQ without my permission.
• 6. A family member told me not to tell other family members that I am LGBTQ.
• 7. I have to lie to my family about being LGBTQ.
• 8. I think I will lose friends if I come out as LGBTQ.
• 9. I expect people to reject me when they find out that I am LGBTQ.
• 10. If I come out, it will cause problems within my family.
• 11. A family member asked me if I was gay or lesbian before I wanted to talk about it.
• 12. I was forced to come out to someone because I got “caught”.
• 13. I was “outed” by someone other than my family without my permission.
• 14. There are times when I do not want to be LGBTQ.
• 15. If I could, I would become straight.
• 16. I hate being LGBTQ.
• 17. I think it is wrong for me to be LGBTQ.
• 18. I hope that being LGBTQ is just a phase for me.
• 19. I think negatively about other LGBTQ people who act “too gay”.
• 20. I am uncomfortable with being LGBTQ.
• 21. I have heard a family member make negative comments about LGBTQ people.
• 22. My family does not want to talk to me about being LGBTQ.
• 23. Someone who lives with me has told me they disapprove of me being LGBTQ.
• 24. I feel as though I am a disappointment to my family because I am LGBTQ.
• 25. My family has told me that being LGBTQ is just a phase.
• 26. My parents are uncomfortable with LGBTQ people.
• 27. My mother (or female caregiver) does not accept me as LGBTQ.
• 28. My father (or male caregiver) does not accept me as LGBTQ.
• 29. My parents are sad that I am LGBTQ.
• 30. My family tries to make me straight.
• 31. I felt unsafe or threatened in school because I am LGBTQ.
• 32. Other youth refuse to do school activities with me because I am LGBTQ.
• 33. I have seen other LGBTQ youth treated badly at my school. ⃝
• 34. It’s hard to be an LGBTQ person at my school.
• 35. Other students make fun of me for being LGBTQ.
• 36. I have seen other LGBTQ youth treated badly in the neighborhood where I live.
• 37. I have felt unsafe or threatened in the neighborhood where I live because I am LGBTQ.
• 38. I have had to move or change where I live because I am LGBTQ.
• 39. I have felt isolated or alone in the neighborhood where I live because I am LGBTQ.
• 40. Other people in the neighborhood where I live make fun of me for being LGBTQ.
• 41. I have been physically assaulted in the neighborhood where I live because I am LGBTQ.
• 42. My friends make jokes about LGBTQ people.
• 43. Other youth refuse to hang out with me because I am LGBTQ.
• 44. Other people who are in my racial/ethnic community judge me for being LGBTQ.
• 45. I have heard negative comments from others in my racial/ethnic community about being LGBTQ.
• 46. I feel as though I don’t fit in my racial/ethnic community because I am LGBTQ.
• 47. As an LGBTQ person in my racial/ethnic community, I feel like I am a minority within a minority.
• 48. I hear other LGBTQ people use words like “fag” or “dyke.”
• 49. My family is part of a religion that has homophobic beliefs.
• 50. I have heard negative messages about being LGBTQ from religious people.
• 51. I would not be accepted as an LGBTQ person in my family’s religion.
• 52. I believe it is wrong for me to be LGBTQ because of my religion.
• 53. A religious leader has encouraged me to reconsider my sexual orientation.
• 54. A religious leader tried to change my sexual orientation.

Please also answer the following if you are currently, or have previously been, employed.

• 55. I have seen other LGBTQ youth treated badly at work.
• 56. I have felt unsafe or threatened at work because I am LGBTQ.
• 57. I have had to leave or change jobs because I am LGBTQ.
• 58. I have felt isolated or alone at work because I am LGBTQ.
• 59. I have lost friendships since coming out as LGBTQ at work.
• 60. It’s hard to be LGBTQ at my workplace.
• 61. I have been physically assaulted by people at work because I am LGBTQ.
• 62. My workplace does not protect LGBTQ employees.
• 63. People at work talk about me being LGBTQ behind my back.
• 64. My boss is unsupportive of me because I am LGBTQ.

If yes – all questions are followed up with “was it within the past 30 days?”

Short Form Items cannot be reported due to space constraints, please see Schrager et al., 2024 for these items.

Scoring

“Lifetime and 30-day factor scores were created by calculating the percentages of endorsed items in each of these 11 factors at any time point, or specifically within the last 30 days, respectively, allowing for comparison of effects across subscales with differing numbers of items. For example, a person who endorsed four of five items in a particular subscale had a score of 80% for that subscale. Total scores were also calculated for both lifetime and 30-day stressors by summing the total number of items endorsed within each time frame for all factors except work (theoretical range: 0–54), because work items were only asked of participants who indicated an employment history in the demographic questions. As reported elsewhere (blinded for review), the total scale and subscales demonstrated good to excellent reliability (scale α = 0.98; subscale α = 0.75–0.96). The complete SMASI measure is presented in Supplementary Table 1.” (Goldbach, Schrager, & Mamey, 2016)

Short Form Scoring 

“were calculated in Sample B as asummed score of all 15 items, following the scoring method of the parent measure (Schrager et al., 2018)”

Citations

• Goldbach, J. T., Schrager, S. M., & Mamey, M. R. (2017). Criterion and Divergent Validity of the Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2057. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02057
• Goldbach, J. T., Schrager, S. M., Mamey, M. R., & Rhoades, H. (2021). Confirming the reliability and validity of the sexual minority adolescent stress inventory in a national sample of sexual minority adolescents. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 720199-720199. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.720199
• Schrager, S. M., Goldbach, J. T., & Mamey, M. R. (2018). Development of the sexual minority adolescent stress inventory. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 319-319. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00319
• Schrager, S. M., Mamey, M. R., Rusow, J., & Goldbach, J. T. (2024). Development and preliminary validation of the Sexual Minority Adolescent Stress Inventory-Short Form.. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. Advance online publication. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000706 
• Weeks, S. N., Renshaw, T. L., & Serang, S. (2023). Validating the structure of proximal and distal factors within the sexual minority adolescent stress inventory. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 41(2), 136-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/07342829221133172