The Impact of COVID-19 on Depressive Symptoms through the Lens of Sexual Orientation.

Brain Sci

Department of Psychology and Education, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of Beira Interior, Pólo IV, 6200-209 Covilhã, Portugal.

Published: April 2021

This research seeks to explore the impact of COVID-19 on depressive symptoms, analyzing discrepancies of sexual orientation in a Portuguese-speaking sample. 1590 individuals participated, of which 63% were women, and 88% self-identified as straight. Participants responded to the depression sub-scale of the Beck Symptoms Iventory-18, the fear of COVID-19 scale and the COVID-19 negative impact scale. Depressive symptoms observed were higher than expected, and several significant differences were obtained: women and self-identified bisexual participants had higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to male and straight and gay or lesbian participants. Depressive symptoms negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with COVID-19 aggravated responses, fear of COVID-19, and negative impact of COVID-19. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that age, gender and sexual orientation explained 6% of the variance of depressive symptoms, and when fear and the negative impact of COVID-19 was added, the model explained 23% of results. This study provides an important contribution to the understanding of factors arising from the pandemic that may have an impact on the mental health of sexual minorities.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8074244PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11040523DOI Listing

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