College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Term of Award

Spring 2026

Degree Name

Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)

Document Type and Release Option

Thesis (open access)

Copyright Statement / License for Reuse

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Department

Department of Psychology

Committee Chair

Michael Nielsen

Committee Member 1

Rebekah-Ann Estevez

Committee Member 2

Jason Slone

Abstract

Marginalized identities (Adams & Miller, 2022) are associated with elevated risks for negative outcomes (Ching et al., 2018; Kayode et al., 2024). Religion has been found to act as a protective and risk factor. Minority Stress Theory (Meyer, 2003) and Intersectionality Theory (Crenshaw, 1991) are used to examine the relationship between identity status and anxiety, prosocial tendencies (PT), and quality of life (QoL). One hundred fifty-two participants were primed with a religious or neutral stimulus, and then answered measures regarding these outcomes (GAD-7, Spitzer et al., 2006; PBIS, Baumsteiger & Siegel, 2019; WHOQOL-BREF, The Whoqol Group, 1998; IFS, Hammer & Lazar, 2019) and demographic information. Results found that those who identified as Racial-Ethnic Minorities (REM) reported lower environmental QoL and greater RF; those who identified as Sexual-Gender Minorities (SGM) reported greater anxiety, as well as lower general & psychological QoL and RF; and religious priming was associated with greater RF. An additional analysis with RF as a covariate found that those who identified as REM reported lower environmental QoL. Future research should utilize a larger sample and consider additional identities.

Research Data and Supplementary Material

No

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