Qualitative development of the daily identity-related stress and resilience model using daily diaries from LGBTQ+ youth in the southeastern United States.

The prevailing reliance on cross-sectional methods in LGBTQ+ mental health research has limited researchers' ability to capture the dynamic, multilevel processes of minority stress and resilience factors as they unfold over time. Although socioecological frameworks have been applied longitudinally, they have rarely attended to the interplay of historical, developmental, and short-term timescales that shape LGBTQ+ youth's day-to-day experiences. Using qualitative daily diary data from a smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study, we pursued two aims: (1) to characterize LGBTQ+ youth's daily positive and negative identity-related experiences using qualitative content analysis; and (2) to develop a conceptual model illustrating how minority stress and resilience factors co-occur and unfold within daily life. Over 28 consecutive days, 50 LGBTQ+ youth aged 13-24 (Mage = 18.38, SD = 3.02; 58% transgender or gender-diverse) living in the U.S. Southeast and at elevated risk for suicide completed nightly diary entries describing the most positive and most negative event of their day. Qualitative content analysis of 349 identity-related diaries (108 negative, 241 positive) revealed that minority stress and resilience factors co-occurred across structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal socioecological levels within single days, and that identity-related experiences showed meaningful continuity across days at the within-person level. Drawing on these findings and existing socioecological frameworks of minority stress, we developed the Daily Identity-Related Stress and Resilience Model, a conceptual framework that positions stress and resilience factors as simultaneous, multilevel processes embedded within individuals' daily lives and shaped by time-stable social and identity factors across both short- and long-term timescales. Implications for future research and intervention development with LGBTQ+ youth are discussed.