Department of Applied Health Sciences, Brock University, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
School of Nursing and Health Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA.
Eur J Public Health. 2022 Feb 1;32(1):35-40. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckab139.
Many lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals continue to experience unique challenges, such as the lack of family support and access to same-sex marriage. This study examines the effect of the introduction of same-sex marriage in the UK (2013-14) on mental health functioning among sexual minorities, and investigates whether low family support may hamper the positive effects of marriage equality legislation among LGB individuals.
This analysis included LGB participants (n = 2172) from the UK household longitudinal study waves 3-7, comprising two waves before and two waves after marriage equality legislation passed in England, Wales and Scotland. Individual-level mental health functioning was measured using the mental component score (MCS-12) of the Short Form-12 survey. Fixed-effect panel linear models examined the effect of marriage equality on MCS-12 across varying family support levels. Analyses included adjustment for covariates and survey weights.
Legalization of same-sex marriage was independently associated with an increase of 1.17 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.28-2.05] MCS-12 in men and 1.13 (95% CI: 0.47-2.27) MCS-12 in women. For men, each additional standard deviation of family support modified the effect of legalization on mental health functioning by +0.70 (95% CI: 0.22-1.18) MCS-12 score. No interaction was found in women.
Our findings provide evidence that same-sex marriage will likely improve LGB mental health functioning, and these effects may be generalizable to other European countries. Since male sexual minorities with low family support benefited the least, additional interventions aimed at improving family support and acceptance of this group is required to help reduce mental health disparities.
许多女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋（LGB）者仍然面临着独特的挑战，例如缺乏家庭支持和同性婚姻的权利。本研究探讨了英国（2013-14 年）同性婚姻的引入对性少数群体心理健康功能的影响，并调查了低家庭支持是否会阻碍同性婚姻平等立法对 LGB 个体的积极影响。
本分析包括来自英国家庭纵向研究第 3-7 波的 LGB 参与者（n=2172），包括同性婚姻平等立法在英格兰、威尔士和苏格兰通过之前的两个波和之后的两个波。使用 12 项简短健康调查的心理成分评分（MCS-12）测量个体心理健康功能。固定效应面板线性模型检查了婚姻平等对不同家庭支持水平下 MCS-12 的影响。分析包括对协变量和调查权重的调整。
同性婚姻的合法化与男性 MCS-12 增加 1.17（95%置信区间（CI）：0.28-2.05）和女性 MCS-12 增加 1.13（95% CI：0.47-2.27）独立相关。对于男性，家庭支持的每增加一个标准差，都会使合法化对心理健康功能的影响增加 0.70（95% CI：0.22-1.18）MCS-12 评分。在女性中未发现交互作用。
我们的研究结果表明，同性婚姻很可能会改善 LGB 的心理健康功能，这些影响可能适用于其他欧洲国家。由于低家庭支持的男同性恋者受益最小，因此需要采取额外的干预措施，旨在改善家庭支持和接受这一群体，以帮助减少心理健康差距。
