We can't “just deal with it”: Emotion regulation may not be an effective protective factor against adverse experiences in LGBTQ + adolescents

Despite known disparities in both adverse experiences and well-being between LGBTQ+ and cisgender/heterosexual youth, research on how LGBTQ+ youth may differently regulate negative emotions and cope with adverse experiences is scant. In a sample of 459 12- to 17-year-old Canadian adolescents, we tested whether emotion regulation capacities and the use of specific regulation strategies differently affected LGBTQ+ v. cisgender/heterosexual youth's well-being and/or differently moderated the association between adverse experiences and well-being. Additionally, we examined developmental differences in these associations between early and middle adolescence. Having effective emotion regulation and a tendency to use engagement strategies over disengagement strategies were associated with better well-being for both LGBTQ+ and cisgender/heterosexual youth. However, they only buffered the association between adverse experiences and well-being for cisgender/heterosexual youth, not for LGBTQ+ youth. No significant developmental differences were detected. This may suggest that although having effective emotion regulation and using engagement v. disengagement strategies confer similar promotive effects on well-being across youth, they do not protect LGBTQ+ youth from the negative effects of adverse experience the way they do for cisgender/heterosexual youth.