Moderators of Gay and Lesbian Mental Health, Coming out, and Relationships

Background and Purpose: After a decade of research on mental health outcomes of lesbian and gay individuals, little research has explored moderating factors that influence levels of mental health. It is critical to understand what variables are significant predictors of mental health as individuals work through the coming out process and manage personal relationships. This innovative research explored depression and anxiety scores among levels of outness, motivations for coming out, negative coming out reactions, and experiences with discrimination.

Methods: An online survey was distributed across social media websites for the lesbian and gay community. Over 500 gay and 200 lesbian individuals completed the survey. The sample’s mean age was 23 years (SD=4.18), consisting of a majority Caucasian (80%, n=634), Atheist or Agnostic (70%, n=557), United States citizens (62%, n=488) with an income of less than $12,000 (41%, n=325). Bivariate analyses and a linear regression were utilized to determine relationships and predictions of depression. Depression scores were regressed on levels of outness, motivations for coming out, negative responses to coming out, how comfortable individuals are with their sexual orientation, and experiences with perceived and experienced discrimination, while controlling for age and gender.

Results: Lesbians had significantly higher depression scores than gay males (p<0.001), experienced more negative reactions to coming out (p=0.014), increased levels of experiences of discrimination due to their sexual orientation (p=0.008) and bending of gender roles or gender identity (p=0.003), and lower levels of comfort with their sexual orientation (p=0.004). The concluding model was significant (F(5, 591)=29.67, p<0.001), with experiences of discrimination based on gender-bending expressions (β=0.212, p<0.001), levels of comfort with sexual orientation (β=-0.234, p<0.001), and observing someone else experiencing discrimination due to their sexual orientation (β=0.132, p<0.01) significantly predicted depression, while controlling for age and gender. Levels of outness were not significant.

Conclusion and Implications: Results of this study reveal valuable information about lesbian and gay depression and their responses to discrimination. Insightful differences between experiencing and witnessing discrimination lead to a wealth of questions for future research. While outness levels were not significant, how comfortable the respondents were with their sexual orientation stood as a stronger representation of integrating the internal and external expectations of the heteronormative culture. Social workers can utilize this information to work with lesbian and gay individuals and family units to limit the impact of negative life stressors.