Psychological Flexibility in the Face of Potential Adversity: Examining Wellness Among Gay and Heterosexual Men

This work expands the theoretical model on the pursuit of happiness in a hostile world, which concerns individuals’ coping processes in the face of life adversity while focusing on psychological flexibility, regarded as an adaptive strategy presenting co-occurrence of converse experiences. Psychological flexibility was operationalized by concurrent, positive, and negative affect as well as by differing modes of coping (negative and positive engagement) related to the concept of a hostile-world scenario. The adaptive role of psychological flexibility was examined among Israeli gay men, a sexual minority that deals with unique hardships. Gay men (N = 474, aged 18–84) were pair-matched with equivalent 474 presumably heterosexual men on core sociodemographic variables. Questionnaires assessed the participants’ psychological flexibility and psychological wellness as indicated by self-rated health, life satisfaction, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism. The results showed a positive association between psychological flexibility and psychological wellness. Moreover, this association was stronger among gay compared to heterosexual men. In conclusion, the endurance of contradictory experiences may facilitate the adjustment to complex life challenges of sexual minorities. Therefore, researchers and clinicians working with sexual minorities are encouraged to examine coping strategies that enhance psychological flexibility by addressing the adaptational benefits embedded in the coactivation of positive and negative experiences.