“I’m Never Really My Full Self”: Young Bisexual Women's Perceptions of their Mental Health

Abstract

Young bisexual women report worse mental health outcomes in comparison to young heterosexual and lesbian women. Although these mental health disparities have been documented consistently in recent research, few researchers have investigated how young bisexual women understand their mental health and perceived factors that influence mental health disparities within their communities. Understanding more about how young bisexual women perceive their mental health can help direct the development of interventions aimed at addressing these health disparities. This article addresses a qualitative community-based research project where 35 young bisexual women discussed their perceptions of their mental health, challenges and supports to their mental health, and suggestions for change. Analysis of the data indicates that young bisexual women perceive monosexism and biphobia as significant challenges to their mental health at the institutional, community, interpersonal, and intrapersonal level.

KEYWORDS:

• early adulthood
• bisexuality
• women
• mental health

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Corey E. Flanders

Corey Flanders, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Re:searching for LGBTQ Health Team at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and a Research Fellow with the department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include the sexual, reproductive, and mental health of sexual and gender minority people, as well as the social factors that influence these domains of health.

Cheryl Dobinson

Cheryl Dobinson, MA, is the director of Community Programming and Research at Planned Parenthood Toronto. She earned her master's degree in sociology from York University in 1998 where her studies focused on queer youth. Cheryl has extensive experience in community-based health research. She has been involved in five different community-based health research projects over the last decade, including a current PPT project on young bisexual women and sexual health, the CIHR-funded project Risk and Resilience among Bisexual People in Ontario: A Community-Based Study of Bisexual Mental Health by Dr. Lori Ross at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and previous projects on issues related to sexual identity, mental health, and reproduction.

Carmen Logie

Carmen Logie, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto and an Adjunct Scientist at Women's College Research Institute. Dr. Logie's research focus is health equity, with particular attention to the associations between intersectional forms of stigma, access to care, and health outcomes. Her current research program includes mixed methods studies that explore (1) social and structural contexts of HIV risk and protective factors among LGBTQ youth in Jamaica, (2) arts-based strategies to reduce sexual stigma in Swaziland and Lesotho, and (3) arts-based strategies for HIV prevention among LGBTQ youth in the Northwest Territories.