Depression and Victimization in a Community Sample of Bisexual and Lesbian Women: An Intersectional Approach.
Arch Sex Behav
; 48(1): 131-141, 2019 01.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-29968037
ABSTRACT
Mental health inequities among bisexual and lesbian women are well-documented. Compared to heterosexual women, both bisexual and lesbian women are more likely to report lifetime depressive disorders, with bisexual women often faring the worst on mental health outcomes. Risk factors for depression, such as victimization in childhood and adulthood, are also more prevalent among bisexual women. Less is known about the intersection of racial/ethnic and sexual minority identities, and how depression and victimization may differ across these multiple, co-occurring identities. Data were from Wave 3 of the Chicago Health and Life Experiences of Women study, an 18-year, community-based longitudinal study of sexual minority women's health. We constructed a six-category "intersection" variable based on sexual identity and race/ethnicity to examine group differences in lifetime depression and victimization. We tested childhood and adult victimization as moderators of lifetime depression (n = 600). A majority (58.2%) of the total sample met criteria for lifetime depression. When considering the intersection of race/ethnicity and sexual identity, Black bisexual and Black lesbian women had significantly lower odds of depression than White lesbian women, despite their higher reports of victimization. Latina bisexual and lesbian women did not differ from White lesbians on depression. Victimization did not moderate the association between the intersection variable and depression. More research is needed to better understand risk and protective factors for depression among racially/ethnically diverse sexual minority women (SWM). We highlight the need to deliberately oversample SWM of color to accomplish this goal.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Comportamento Sexual
/
Bissexualidade
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Homossexualidade Feminina
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Vítimas de Crime
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Depressão
Tipo de estudo:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Adolescent
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Adult
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Female
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Humans
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Arch Sex Behav
Ano de publicação:
2019
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Estados Unidos