Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Building NR6, Bundoora, VIC, 3086, Australia.
Graduate School of Public Health, St Luke's International University, Tokyo, Japan.
BMC Public Health. 2023 Jul 25;23(1):1421. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-16034-7.
Affirming socio-cultural settings are essential for protecting the mental health and wellbeing of lesbian, bisexual or pansexual, trans and gender diverse, asexual and queer (LGBTQA +) youth. However, limited research has explored the role of affirming educational and workplace settings, as reported by LGBTQA + youth themselves, with respect to their mental health and wellbeing. Moreover, existing research maintains a focus on mitigating poor mental health outcomes, with little attention to positive wellbeing outcomes among LGBTQA + youth.
Using data from the largest national survey of LGBTQA + youth aged 14-21 in Australia, multivariable regression analyses were conducted to explore associations between affirming educational and workplace settings and psychological distress and subjective wellbeing among 4,331 cisgender and 1,537 trans and gender diverse youth. Additionally, a series of multivariable regression analyses were conducted to explore individual sociodemographic traits that are associated with reporting affirming educational or workplace settings.
Both cisgender and trans or gender diverse participants who reported that their education institution or workplace were affirming of their LGBTQA + identity reported lower levels of psychological distress as well as higher levels of subjective happiness. Additionally, affirming environments were not experienced equally across all subsections of LGBTQA + youth, with reporting of an affirming educational or workplace setting differing most noticeably across gender, type of educational institution and residential location.
The findings demonstrate that affirming educational and workplace settings can result not only in better mental health, but also greater levels of subjective happiness among LGBTQA + youth. The outcomes illustrate the importance of ensuring all LGBTQA + youth are afforded the opportunity to thrive in environments where they feel validated and confident to express their identities. The findings further highlight a need to target education institutions and workplaces to ensure the implementation of policies and practices that promote not just inclusion of LGBTQA + youth but affirmation of their identities.
肯定社会文化环境对于保护女同性恋、双性恋或泛性恋、跨性别和性别多样化、无性恋和酷儿（LGBTQA+）青年的心理健康和幸福至关重要。然而，很少有研究探讨过 LGBTQA+青年自己报告的肯定教育和工作环境的作用，以及这些环境对他们的心理健康和幸福的影响。此外，现有的研究仍然侧重于减轻心理健康不良的后果，而很少关注 LGBTQA+青年的积极幸福感。
利用澳大利亚最大的全国性 LGBTQA+青年（年龄在 14-21 岁之间）调查的数据，采用多变量回归分析方法，探讨了在 4331 名顺性别和 1537 名跨性别和性别多样化青年中，肯定教育和工作环境与心理困扰和主观幸福感之间的关联。此外，还进行了一系列多变量回归分析，以探讨与报告肯定教育或工作环境相关的个体社会人口特征。
报告其教育机构或工作场所认同其 LGBTQA+身份的顺性别和跨性别或性别多样化的参与者，其心理困扰水平较低，主观幸福感水平较高。此外，肯定的环境并不是在所有 LGBTQA+青年群体中都平等地感受到，报告肯定的教育或工作环境在性别、教育机构类型和居住地点等方面存在最明显的差异。
研究结果表明，肯定的教育和工作环境不仅可以改善 LGBTQA+青年的心理健康，还可以提高他们的主观幸福感。这些结果说明了确保所有 LGBTQA+青年都有机会在他们感到被认可和有信心表达自己身份的环境中茁壮成长的重要性。研究结果进一步强调了需要针对教育机构和工作场所，确保实施不仅包容 LGBTQA+青年，而且肯定他们身份的政策和做法。
