Long-term mental health correlates of socialsupportive relationships in a lesbian, gay, and bisexual sample

ABSTRACT

Social support cultivates mental health, but little is known about how social support is experienced in individuals with a stigmatised identity, such as those who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB). The present study explored how specific elements of social support: reliance, feeling understood, and support for self-expression, experienced within parent, friend, and romantic relationships, relate to long-term mental health in an LGB sample. Responses were provided across 2 years by individuals who self-identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual in the nationally-representative dataset- Understanding Society, the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). We predicted that having close relationships higher in social support would be linked to better general mental health 2 years after support was measured. Models partially supported hypotheses: broadly speaking, social support from friends, family, and romantic partners associated significantly with mental health measured at baseline and two years later, when relationships were considered separately. Of these, support for self-expression as provided by families were most robust even in models with conservative baseline and other relationship controls.

KEYWORDS:

• Social support
• LGB
• mental health
• well-being
• longitudinal

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For straight participants, correlations were found between all three types of social support: family and friends (r(469) = .394, p< .001); family and partner (r(325) = .240, p< .001); and friends and partner (r(325) = .134, p = .016). Likewise, general mental health at both baseline and 2 years correlated highly with all three social support relationships.

2. In this model, age and orientation covariates were found to be significant in predicting GHQ 2-years later. Age related to better mental health (β = −.134, p = .012), whereas bisexual participants demonstrated poorer mental health than gay and lesbian ones (β = .160, p = .003).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maya Al-Khouja

Maya Al-Khouja is a Psychology PhD student at Cardiff University researching topics relating to autonomy in Self-Determination Theory. She is specifically interested in how autonomy support can be used to promote health and well-being in sexual minorities.

Netta Weinstein

Netta Weinstein is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the School of Psychology at Cardiff University. She studies how motivation shapes the quality of emotions and interpersonal experiences, including the capacity for adaptive self-regulation, such as the regulation of negative emotions and psychological stress, as well as effort and care extended to relationships.

Nicole Legate

Nicole Legate is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Illinois Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on how the social environment can support – or conversely, thwart – health and well-being. Much of this work has looked at how autonomy support from parents and important others can promote health resilience in sexual minorities.