Logo: to the web site of Uppsala University

uu.sePublications from Uppsala University
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Mental disorders and sexual orientation in college students across 13 countries of differing levels of LGBTQ+ acceptance
Univ Massachusetts Boston, Dept Psychol, Boston, MA USA..ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6293-8796
Uppsala University, Disciplinary Domain of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology. Malmö Univ, Dept Criminol, Malmö, Sweden..ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9819-2474
Linköping Univ, Dept Hlth Med & Caring Sci, Linköping, Sweden..
Hosp Mar Res Inst, Hlth Serv Res Grp, Barcelona, Spain.;Inst Salud Carlos III, CIBER Epidemiol & Salud Publ, Madrid, Spain..ORCID iD: 0000-0003-2113-6241
Show others and affiliations
2025 (English)In: Journal of Psychiatric Research, ISSN 0022-3956, E-ISSN 1879-1379, Vol. 186, p. 331-340Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Mental health disparities have been reported among sexual minority individuals; minority stress theory posits that such disparities are a result of stigma and discrimination. We estimated the prevalence of mental disorders across sexual orientation groups among first-year college students and whether differences across sexual orientation groups varied by gender and country-level LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) social acceptance. Using data (N = 53,175; 13 countries) from the World Mental Health Surveys International College Surveys, we performed multilevel logistic regressions to estimate the associations between sexual orientation (i.e., heterosexual, heterosexual with same-gender attraction [SGA], gay/lesbian, bisexual, asexual, questioning, and other) and five twelve-month DSM-5 disorders (major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, alcohol use disorder, drug use disorder). Heterosexual students with SGA (AORs 1.30-2.15), gay/lesbian (AORs 1.49-2.70), bisexual (AORs 2.26-3.49), questioning (AORs 1.38-2.04), and "other" (AORs 1.76-2.94) students had higher odds of all disorders compared to heterosexual students with no SGA; asexual students did not. Significant interactions with gender show that the gender difference in prevalence was greater among bisexual individuals for most disorders and among all sexual minorities (except "other") for drug use disorder. Significant interactions with country level LGBT+ social acceptance showed some sexual minority groups had lower odds (AORs 0.83-0.95) of disorder as country-level acceptance increased. These findings provide further evidence of mental disorder disparities across a wide range of sexual orientations and how these disparities vary by gender and societal LGBTQ+ acceptance in students from diverse countries.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2025. Vol. 186, p. 331-340
Keywords [en]
Sexual orientation, College student, Mental disorder, DSM-5, Social acceptance, Cross-national
National Category
Psychiatry Public Health, Global Health and Social Medicine
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-565101DOI: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2025.04.021ISI: 001484396800001PubMedID: 40286461Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105003374953OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-565101DiVA, id: diva2:1989553
Available from: 2025-08-18 Created: 2025-08-18 Last updated: 2025-08-18Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Andersson, ClaesBerman, Anne H.

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Renteria, RobertoAndersson, ClaesMortier, PhilippeAuerbach, Randy P.Berman, Anne H.Stein, Dan J.
By organisation
Department of Psychology
In the same journal
Journal of Psychiatric Research
PsychiatryPublic Health, Global Health and Social Medicine

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 60 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf