LGBT (Lewis, 2009) Flashcards
During the past decade, researchers in psychology, psychiatry, public health, and other fields have increasingly linked poor mental health outcomes to…
Sexual orientation
Although theoretical frameworks that emphasize stigma and discrimination as causes of poor mental health among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other queer-identified individuals are relatively well developed…
the empirical evidence supporting such models—while strong—is disparate and rarely synthesized.
Why do sexual minorities tend to be under- sampled, resulting in low statistical power and limited publicly available data?
Few government health agencies have sponsored national-level studies to measure mental health in sexual minority populations.
What issues arise from mental health researchers conducting volunteer based studies of sexual minority groups in a geographic area of interest to them (usually urban)?
These although useful, typically lack a heterosexual referent group and may include skewed data due to volunteer bias.
What has qualitative research suggested significantly influences mental health outcomes in gay men?
(Knopp and Brown, 2003)
Place-based factors, such as national or local policy regimes, cultural norms, and access to gay-specific mental health services.
What is the result of the spatially reified design of tools like health surveys (to inform health policy that is largely regulated by national or state bodies) and to the mechanisms that fund them (national and state health agencies and organizations)?
A ‘‘governmentalized’’ vision of mental health indicators, patterns, and trends that ‘‘prioritizes policy and programmatic decisions’’ and dictates the ‘‘social stakes’’ of research (Faulkner and Cranston, 1998)
What is highlighted and what is obscured by these spatially reified design of tools like health surveys?
Certain ‘‘treatable’’ issues (depression, anxiety) are highlighted while others (fear, isolation) are obscured, and the nation or state—rather than the city, neighborhood, or region—is posited as the primary container of mental health experiences and the factors mitigating them.
In all seven studies shown, gay respondents were more likely than heterosexual ones to report…
experiencing some type of mental health condition in the past year.
Suicide attempt stats
twice as common in gay men (compared to heterosexual men) in the British study, all of the other studies = three or more times higher for gay men.
Binge drinking and drugs stats
LGB adolescents had usually engaged in binge drinking more often in the past month than their heterosexual peers (10–15% difference) in most studies.
LGB respondents 3–8 times more likely to have used cocaine in the past month.
With only a few exceptions, gay men were consistently more likely than heterosexual men—often as much as three or four times more likely—to experience
depression, anxiety, suicide ideation, and other disorders.
