Swedish study reveals LGBTQ coping strategies operate on two distinct timescales
Researchers analyzing how LGBTQ people manage minority stress identified two separate coping mechanisms: immediate survival tactics for daily situations and long-term strategies that build livable lives. The finding could reshape how mental health services, employers, and policymakers support vulnerable populations by recognizing that both short-term crisis management and sustained systemic change are essential.
Originaltitel: Exploring reflexive methodology as a pluralist approach to enhance mixed methods research on coping and livability among LGBTQ people in Sweden
<p>The article explores the use of reflexive methodology to enhance mixed methods queer psychological research in Sweden, by analysing data from a qualitative research project on how LGBTQ people cope with minority stress from four epistemological perspectives. A descriptive, hermeneutically and phenomenologically inspired analysis showed that coping should be understood from temporal perspective, where ‘microcoping’ covers strategies used in specific here and now-situations, and ‘macrocoping’ addresses general strategies used over time. We suggest that this differentiation is explored in further research. The analysis then included a theoretically driven perspective using feminist theories and discursive perspectives. Three themes resulted describing different types of constant ongoing work, ‘existential’, ‘relational’ and ‘reflexive’, that participants utilized to carve out a livable existence in the world. We suggest that reflexive methodology can help produce results that can be useful in a local as well as an international context and in relation to different audiences.</p>