Partnership status and mental health in a nationally representative sample of sexual minorities.

Abstract

Research has consistently shown mental health differences between sexual minority subgroups with bisexual people often reporting higher levels of psychological distress than lesbians and gay men. Relationship status has been suggested, but not well studied, as a potential factor contributing to subgroup differences in mental health. Using a national probability sample of nontransgender sexual minority adults across three age cohorts (18-25, 34-41, 52-59 years), we assessed group differences in psychological distress (Kessler 6) between lesbian/gay (N = 505), bisexual (N = 272), and queer/pansexual (N = 75) respondents. We examined whether relationship status (single/partnered) moderated the relationship between sexual identity and psychological distress. Among those that were partnered, we tested whether key partner characteristics related to sexual identity-gender of partner (cisgender samesex/transgender or cisgender different-sex) and partner sexual identity (same or mixed sexual orientation relationship)-were significantly associated with psychological distress. In bivariate analyses, bisexual and queer/pansexual respondents reported more psychological distress than gay/lesbian respondents, among both men and women. In multivariable analyses, there was not a significant main effect of sexual identity, but there was a significant interaction between sexual identity and partnership status on psychological distress among women. Specifically, while there were no significant differences in psychological distress between subgroups of single women, among partnered women, queer/pansexual women had more distress than lesbian/gay women. Further, partnership was associated with reduced distress among lesbian/gay women, but not among bisexual or queer/pansexual women. Among men, there were no sig-Abuse and Alcoholism (grant F32AA025814).

Policy, relationships, and well-being: Associations between mental health and main partner relationships among cisgender sexual minority men in the context of U.S. state-level policies.

“…Methodologically, these results suggest that one plausible reason why associations between relationship status and health may fluctuate across studies is that partnered people in samples vary with respect to relationship quality. For example, Whitton et al (2018) found that being partnered was associated with greater psychological distress among bisexual-identified individuals; meanwhile, Wilson et al (2022) found no association between being partnered and mental health among SMM. These conflicting findings highlight the need for researchers to assess relationship quality when evaluating associations between relationship status and health.…”

“…This might explain why some studies that examine the benefits of being partnered yield contradictory results. For example, Wilson et al (2022) found that being partnered was associated with reduced psychological distress among lesbian-identified women, but not among SMM. Other evidence suggests that being partnered versus single is associated with greater psychological distress among bisexual-identified individuals (Whitton et al, 2018).…”

An intersectional approach to understanding minority stressors and relationship satisfaction in sexual and gender minority women’s same-gender interracial/interethnic intimate relationships.

“…In our study, there were no sexual identity differences in relationship satisfaction which may suggest an effect of partner gender given that all bisexual women in the current sample were in relationships with women at the time of their participation. Future studies might examine stressors associated with gender composition of couples as there is some evidence that partner gender has linkages with health and health behaviors (Veldhuis et al, 2020; Wilson et al, 2022).…”

Sexual minority disparities in psychosocial functioning following substance use recovery among a representative sample of US adults

“…The Kessler-6 is a 6-item measure ( Kessler et al, 2003 ) of psychiatric symptoms experienced throughout the past 30 days ( α = 0.90) ( Wilson et al, 2021 ). For example, participants answered how often in the past 30 days they felt “that everything was an effort” on a 5-point scale ranging from 0, “none of the time” to 4, “all of the time.” Data were available for 99.1 % of the sample.…”