LESBIAN AND GAY MALE GROUP IDENTITY ATTITUDES AND SELF-ESTEEM - IMPLICATIONS FOR COUNSELING

Ninety-six lesbians and gay men ages 18 to 46 years completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and a modified version of Helms and Parham's (1985) Racial Identity Attitude Scale (RIAS). Based on Cross's (1971, 1978) model of African-American identity development, the RIAS assesses 4 distinct psychological stages (preencounter, encounter, immersion-emersion, and internalization), which are thought to correspond to a parallel process in the development of gay male and lesbian group identity attitudes. Consistent with findings among other minority groups, the results indicated a moderate inverse relationship between preencounter attitudes and self-esteem and a positive relationship between internalization attitudes and self-esteem. Encounter and immersion-emersion attitudes were (nonsignificantly) negatively correlated with self-esteem. Implications for counseling gay men and lesbians are discussed.