Study Finds a Bidirectional Link Between Same-Sex Attraction and Psychological Distress
A new study published in Behavior Genetics provides evidence of a bidirectional relationship between same-sex attraction and psychological distress. The findings indicate that experiencing attraction to people of the same sex can result in higher levels of depression and anxiety, but this relationship goes both ways – psychological distress can also result in an increase in sexuality-related stress.
Research has demonstrated that individuals who are sexually attracted to people of the same sex tend to experience higher levels of psychological distress, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, compared to those who are exclusively heterosexual. But most of the research on this topic has been cross-sectional, which limits its ability to draw conclusions about causality. The authors of the new study sought to help fill this gap in the literature.
“I started out investigating the mental health of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals in Nigeria,” said study author Olakunle Oginni, a postdoctoral research associate at King’s College London and lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University.
“This was because there was little research on LGB Nigerians’ mental health despite the wide recognition of higher mental health difficulties among LGB individuals. I developed expertise in the twin design during my PhD and used this method to show that the association between sexual orientation and mental health is not due to overlapping genetic influences. The present study is significant because it demonstrates how being LGB can ’cause’ psychological distress (anxiety and depressive symptoms), and potential mechanisms for this effect.”
The study analyzed data from the UK Twins Early Development Study, a large twin cohort investigating genetic and environmental factors that shape individual differences in cognitive and learning abilities, behavior, and emotions. The data analyzed in the current study were collected in two phases between June 2017 and February 2019. The final sample comprised 9,697 and 8,718 individuals from the first and second phases, respectively. The average age of the participants during this wave of data collection was 22.3 years. (Read more from “Study Finds a Bidirectional Link Between Same-Sex Attraction and Psychological Distress” HERE)
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