Internalized Sexual Orientation Stigma and Mental Health in a Religiously Diverse Sample of Gay and Bisexual Men in Lebanon

Figures & data

Table 1. Characteristics of the participant sample.

Nationality	Lebanese	Syrian	Palestinian
	N = 187	N = 7	N = 2
	93.5%	3.5%	1%
Age	Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum
	29.77	6.38	18	50
Governorate of residence	Beirut	Mount Lebanon	North	South	Bekaa
	N = 132	N = 39	N = 11	N = 3	N = 6
	66%	19.5%	5.5%	1.5%	3%
Qualification	University	Non-university
	N = 174 87%	N = 19 9.5%
Sexual orientation	Gay	Bisexual
	N = 107 53.5%	N = 88 44%
Religion	Christians	Muslims	No religion
	N = 93 46.5%	N = 62 31%	N = 42 21%

Table 2. Descriptive statistics for the key variables of this study.

	Mean	SD	Minimum	Maximum
Religiosity	12.24	5.74	5	25
Depression	21.49	5.68	11	38
Psychological distress	35.21	14.42	18	77
Internalized sexual orientation stigma	20.09	8.18	9	43
Overall outness	23.9	14.22	0	77
Outness to family	10.66	7.23	0	28
Outness to world	8.48	6.35	0	28
Outness in one’s religious institution	3.04	2.64	0	14
Frequency of attending a place of worship	2.08	1.03	1	5
Family pressure to get married	Yes	No
	N = 146 73.7%	N = 52 26.3%

Table 3. Descriptive statistics for religious differences for key variables of interest.

	Christians			Muslims			No religion			F	df	p	η^2
	N	M	SD	N	M	SD	N	M	SD
Overall outness	93	23.42	13.79	62	21.42	15.20	42	29.29	12.79	4.094	2, 194	.01	0.28
Outness to one’s family	78	9.58	6.59	48	10.00	7.48	36	14.08	7.39	4.094	2, 194	. 01	0.20
Depression	91	20.23	4.94	61	22.13	6.03	39	23.25	6.25	4.650	2, 188	.01	0.16
Psychological distress	93	31.94	11.34	62	37.45	16.07	42	38.10	16.08	4.186	2, 194	0.01	0.24

Table 4. Correlations between the key variables.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Age		.101	.083	−.149*	−.174*	.094	.060	.064	.080
2. Internalized sexual orientation stigma	.101		.395**	.060	.041	−.397**	−.158	−.155	.243**
3. Religiosity	.083	.395**		−.151*	−.134	−.286**	−.010	.118	.670**
4. Depression	−.149*	.060	−.151*		.749**	.044	−.046	−.110	−.280**
5. Psychological distress	−.174*	.041	−.134	.749**		.081	−.006	−.062	−.246**
6. Outness to family	−.094	−.397**	−.286**	.044	.081		.508**	.411**	−.270**
7. Outness to world	.060	−.158	−.010	−.046	−.006	.508**		.665**	−.008
8. Outness in one’s religious institution	.064	−.155	.118	−.110	−.062	.411**	.665**		.128
9. Frequency of attending a place of worship	.080	.243**	.670**	−.280**	−.246**	−.270**	−.008	.128

*p < .050; **p < .005