Poorer mental health in UK bisexual women than lesbians: evidence from the UK 2007 Stonewall Women's Health Survey

Colledge, Lisa; Hickson, Ford; Reid, David; Weatherburn, Peter

doi:10.1093/pubmed/fdu105

Cited by 79 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…3,4 More limited evidence suggests that these disparities also extend to people of other sexual identities who report sexual attraction to or behaviour with both men and women. For example, studies have found elevated levels of outcomes such as psychological distress among "mostly heterosexual" individuals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing non-monosexual women at risk for poor mental health outcomes: A mixed methods study

Ross

Manley

Goldberg

et al. 2017

Can J Public Health

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OBJECTIVES: Non-monosexual women -those who report attraction to or sexual relationships with individuals of more than one gender -have elevated risk for poor mental health outcomes. We aimed to examine which elements of non-monosexual experience are associated with this elevated risk. METHODS:We conducted a sequential exploratory mixed methods analysis of qualitative interview and survey data from 39 non-monosexual women recruited consecutively through prenatal care providers. Qualitative analyses identified distinguishing features, and quantitative analyses tested associations between these features and mental health symptoms.RESULTS: Nine qualitative themes were identified to describe distinguishing features of non-monosexual women. Of these, current and past five years partner gender, lack of LGBTQ community connection, and low centrality of sexual minority identity were associated with anxiety symptoms. Latent class analysis revealed significantly higher levels of anxiety symptoms among non-monosexual women partnered with men relative to those partnered with women.CONCLUSION: Sexual minority women who partner with men may be particularly at risk for poor mental health. Considering this group's invisibility in public health research and practice, interventions are needed to address this disparity.KEY WORDS: Bisexuality; mental health; qualitative research; questionnaire design La traduction du résumé se trouve à la fin de l'article.Can J Public Health 2017;108(3):e296-e305 doi: 10.17269/CJPH.108.5884 S exual minority women (SMW; e.g., lesbian, bisexual) report higher rates of mental health problems compared to heterosexual women, 1,2 and bisexual women in particular report higher rates of poor outcomes than both lesbian and heterosexual women. 3,4 More limited evidence suggests that these disparities also extend to people of other sexual identities who report sexual attraction to or behaviour with both men and women. For example, studies have found elevated levels of outcomes such as psychological distress among "mostly heterosexual" individuals. 5,6 Considering that the identified health disparities appear to be associated with a variety of sexual orientation self-identities (including bisexual, mostly heterosexual, and queer, among others), recent research has turned to trying to understand the health status and predictors for the broader group of individuals reporting sexual attraction to and/or behaviour with both men and women -a group that has been collectively termed non-monosexual 7 or plurisexual 8 people.One challenge to this emerging body of research is the diversity of experience that is included within non-monosexual groupings. For example, non-monosexual categories may be defined on the basis of self-identity, sexual behaviour across a particular time period, or self-reported sexual attraction. Each of these definitions will capture a different group of women, 9,10 and may include women with a variety of sexual orientation identities, women who are currently partnered with people of va...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterizing non-monosexual women at risk for poor mental health outcomes: A mixed methods study

Ross

Manley

Goldberg

et al. 2017

Can J Public Health

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“…Evidence that midlife and young bisexual (and transgender) people have worse mental health outcomes than lesbian and gay people is building (Colledge et al, 2015;Jorm, Korten, Rodgers, Jacomb, & Christensen, 2002) but is little studied in relation to older people. One common explanation for these worse outcomes is minority stress -long term chronic stress stemming from experiences of stigma, marginalisation or discrimination, and functioning as a social determinant of health Meyer, 2003).…”

Section: Lifelong Experiences Of Biphobia May Affect Health and Wellbmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a small speculative literature on the issues older bisexually-identified people are likely to face when encountering support services (Dworkin, 2006;Rodriguez Rust, 2012;Scherrer, 2017) and some evidence that bisexually-identified women are at increased risk of negative health outcomes across the life course compared to lesbians (Colledge, Hickson, Reid, & Weatherburn, 2015;Fredriksen-Goldsen, Kim, Barkan, Balsam, & Mincer, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Older bisexual people: Implications for social work from the ‘Looking Both Ways’ study

Jones

Almack

Scicluna³

2018

Journal of Gerontological Social Work

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AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank all the participants in the research for so generously sharing their experiences. They would also like to thank the two anonymous peer reviewers. AbstractThere is a growing social work literature about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older people. However, research and guidance are predominantly based on the experiences of older gay men and, to a lesser extent, older lesbians. There is little to help practitioners work with older bisexual people. The Looking Both Ways study aimed to contribute to this gap in knowledge. We undertook in-depth purposely-sampled qualitative interviews with 12 people aged over 50, all of whom have bisexual relationship histories and half of whom also currently identify as bisexual. There were three main findings. Firstly, biphobia (prejudice against bisexual people) impacts on older people with bisexual histories in ways that may affect their wellbeing in later life. Secondly, concerns around receiving care are similar in some ways and different in others from the concerns of lesbians and gay men.Thirdly, people with bisexual relationship histories may have developed strong support networks and resilience, factors that may be very beneficial in later life. Three recommendations for social work professionals were identified: 1) understand biphobia, 2) recognise the legitimacy of concerns about receiving care, and 3) ask about support networks rather than assuming family support.

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“…This finding has been replicated across many different countries and contexts, as readers of this journal are well aware (e.g., Colledge, Hickson, Reid, & Weatherburn, 2015;Jorm, Korten, Rodgers, Jacomb, & Christensen, 2002;King & McKeown, 2003;Schrimshaw, Siegel, Downing, & Parsons, 2013). Therefore, in presenting a keynote talk (see acknowledgments) on bisexuality it seemed appropriate-even essential-to focus on issues of mental health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

Depression and/or Oppression? Bisexuality and Mental Health

Barker

2015

Journal of Bisexuality

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Perhaps the most important, and consistent, finding in existing research on bisexuality is the fact that bisexual people are more prone to mental health problems than either heterosexual, or lesbian and gay, people. This article considers bisexual mental health from an individual, and a community, perspective. It asks how we, as individuals, generally understand mental health, and what ideas might be useful in relation to this. It also asks how the bisexual and wider lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer communities that we are located in can relate to the ways in which we engage with mental health.

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Poorer mental health in UK bisexual women than lesbians: evidence from the UK 2007 Stonewall Women's Health Survey

Cited by 79 publications

References 54 publications

Characterizing non-monosexual women at risk for poor mental health outcomes: A mixed methods study

Characterizing non-monosexual women at risk for poor mental health outcomes: A mixed methods study

Older bisexual people: Implications for social work from the ‘Looking Both Ways’ study

Depression and/or Oppression? Bisexuality and Mental Health

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