Sexual minority individuals who shift from a monosexual (gay or lesbian) to a plurisexual (bisexual, pansexual, or queer) identity—or vice versa—may be at greater risk of mental health or substance use problems than individuals with static identities, reports a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Evan A. Krueger, Ph.D., of Tulane University in New Orleans, and colleagues examined data from the Generations study, a prospective survey of cisgender sexual minority adults conducted from 2015 to 2016 and again from 2017 to 2018. Among the areas covered at baseline and follow-up were five related to mental health or substance use: overall psychological distress in the past month, poor mental health days in the past month, current social well-being, current drinking frequency, and current use of other drugs.
The study sample included 683 participants, of whom 400 were consistently monosexual, 239 were consistently plurisexual, 19 switched from monosexual to plurisexual, and 25 switched from plurisexual to monosexual between 2015 and 2018. The researchers found the following:
- Females who had recently adopted a plurisexual identity reported higher psychological distress, lower social well-being, and more poor mental health days than consistently monosexual females.
- Males who had recently adopted a monosexual identity reported lower social well-being than consistently plurisexual males.
- Males who recently switched identities in either direction reported more problematic drinking than males who retained a consistent identity; males who switched also reported more problematic drug use than consistently plurisexual males.
“These findings suggest that for [sexual minority] males, substance misuse prevention efforts may need to target individuals actively experiencing an identity change or those who are unsure of their identity,” Krueger and colleagues wrote.
“Importantly, despite identity change being associated with declines in several indicators of behavioral health, these findings do not suggest that efforts to influence one’s identity developmental trajectory would be beneficial for sexual minority behavioral health,” the researchers added. “In fact, ample research has shown that efforts to influence the ways in which sexual minority people identity (e.g., so-called conversion therapy) are harmful to health and well-being.”
For related information, see the Psychiatric Services article “Age-Associated Differences in Mental Distress Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adults.”
(Image: Getty Images/iStock/MarijaRadovic)
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