Sexual minority women are at greater risk of depressive symptoms: the mediation effects of minority stressors

Abstract

Abstract Background Although, a substantial amount of research has shown that compared with heterosexual counterparts, sexual minority populations are at increased risk of mental health symptoms, there are less public health researches on lesbian and bisexual women, making it hard to draw conclusions about the way to improve health. Methods This study examined the association of distal stressors, proximal stressors with depressive symptom. The study sample included 301 sexual minority women in Beijing, with 81.4% identifying as lesbian and 18.6% identifying as bisexual. They responded to self-report measures of sexual minority stress and depressive symptoms. Data were collected from August 2018 to October 2018. The association of minority stressors and depressive symptoms was estimated using the parallel mediation models. Results Depressive symptoms were prevalent among sexual minority women (56.1%). The correlations between distal stressors, proximal stressors and depressive symptoms were significant. The parallel mediation model showed that, expectation of rejection rather than sexual orientation concealment and internalized homophobia emerges as a significant mediator between sexual orientation-related stigma and depressive symptoms. Conclusions Early intervention addressing sexual orientation-related stigma combined with eliminating expectation of rejection would help prevent depressive symptoms in sexual minority women.