Sources of Social Support, Self-Esteem and Psychological Distress among Chinese Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People.

IF 2.2 4区医学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

International Journal of Sexual Health Pub Date : 2023-01-02 eCollection Date: 2023-01-01 DOI:10.1080/19317611.2022.2157920

Chao Song, Yaling Pang, Jingyun Wang, Zhongfang Fu

{"title":"Sources of Social Support, Self-Esteem and Psychological Distress among Chinese Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People.","authors":"Chao Song, Yaling Pang, Jingyun Wang, Zhongfang Fu","doi":"10.1080/19317611.2022.2157920","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Objective: Minority stressors are associated with increased psychological distress, and social support is considered as a significant protective factor to mitigate the psychological distress in LGB individuals. In China, LGB individuals suffer additional pressure from society and family, but only a few studies have explored the effect of social support on the psychological distress of Chinese LGB individuals and the mechanism underlying the association. The current study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between three sources of social support (from family, friends, and others) and psychological distress in Chinese LGB individuals.Methods: 227 LGB individuals (M age = 25.9 years; SD = 5.6) who were voluntarily recruited by a combination of snowballing and targeted sampling strategies. Path analysis was used to test the associations between variables.Results: Results indicated that 31.3% of LGB individuals had a high level of psychological distress. The results showed that social support from family, friends, and others was associated with higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of psychological distress. Only the mediating effect of self-esteem was found between friend support and psychological distress.Conclusions: This study demonstrated that friend support might be a protective factor against psychological distress in Chinese LGB individuals, and more friend support could potentially relieve psychological distress by building higher self-esteem. These results highlight the importance of fostering friend support in the group of Chinese LGB individuals.","PeriodicalId":46855,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Sexual Health","volume":"35 1","pages":"130-138"},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10903701/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Sexual Health","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19317611.2022.2157920","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Minority stressors are associated with increased psychological distress, and social support is considered as a significant protective factor to mitigate the psychological distress in LGB individuals. In China, LGB individuals suffer additional pressure from society and family, but only a few studies have explored the effect of social support on the psychological distress of Chinese LGB individuals and the mechanism underlying the association. The current study aimed to examine the mediating role of self-esteem in the relationship between three sources of social support (from family, friends, and others) and psychological distress in Chinese LGB individuals.

Methods: 227 LGB individuals (M age = 25.9 years; SD = 5.6) who were voluntarily recruited by a combination of snowballing and targeted sampling strategies. Path analysis was used to test the associations between variables.

Results: Results indicated that 31.3% of LGB individuals had a high level of psychological distress. The results showed that social support from family, friends, and others was associated with higher levels of self-esteem and lower levels of psychological distress. Only the mediating effect of self-esteem was found between friend support and psychological distress.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that friend support might be a protective factor against psychological distress in Chinese LGB individuals, and more friend support could potentially relieve psychological distress by building higher self-esteem. These results highlight the importance of fostering friend support in the group of Chinese LGB individuals.

查看原文本刊更多论文

中国女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋人群的社会支持、自尊和心理困扰的来源

【摘要】目的少数压力源与LGB个体心理困扰增加相关，社会支持被认为是减轻LGB个体心理困扰的重要保护因素。在中国，LGB个体承受着来自社会和家庭的额外压力，但很少有研究探讨社会支持对中国LGB个体心理困扰的影响及其机制。本研究旨在探讨自尊在三种社会支持来源(家庭、朋友和他人)与中国LGB个体心理困扰之间的中介作用。方法227例LGB患者(年龄25.9岁;SD = 5.6)，他们是通过滚雪球和目标抽样策略相结合的方式自愿招募的。通径分析用于检验变量之间的相关性。结果31.3%的LGB人群存在较高程度的心理困扰。结果表明，来自家庭、朋友和其他人的社会支持与更高水平的自尊和更低水平的心理困扰有关。只有自尊在朋友支持与心理困扰之间有中介作用。结论本研究表明，朋友支持可能是中国LGB个体心理困扰的保护因素，更多的朋友支持可能通过建立更高的自尊来缓解心理困扰。这些结果强调了在中国LGB群体中培养朋友支持的重要性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Journal of Sexual Health Multiple-

CiteScore

3.00

自引率

20.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： As the official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health, the International Journal of Sexual Health promotes sexual health as a state of physical, emotional, mental, and social well-being through a positive approach to sexuality and sexual rights. The journal publishes peer-reviewed scientific papers, editorials, and reviews, using quantitative and qualitative methods, descriptive and critical analysis, instrument development, surveys, and case studies to examine the essential elements of this broad concept. Leading experts from around the world present original work that covers a variety of disciplines, including sexology, biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology, history, and religion.