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Disparities in Depressive Distress by Sexual Orientation in Emerging Adults: The Roles of Attachment and Stress Paradigms

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Abstract

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (BI) youth have elevated rates of depression compared to heterosexuals. We proposed and examined a theoretical model to understand whether attachment and stress paradigms explain disparities in depressive distress by sexual orientation, using the longitudinal Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) and Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII). GUTS participants eligible for this analysis reported sexual orientation, childhood gender nonconforming behaviors (GNBs), attachment to mother (all in 2005), and depressive symptoms (in 2007). Mothers of the GUTS participants who are the NHSII participants reported attitudes toward homosexuality (in 2004) and maternal affection (in 2006). The sample had 6,122 participants. Of GUTS youth (M = 20.6 years old in 2005; 64.4 % female), 1.7 % were lesbian/gay (LG), 1.7 % bisexual (BI), 10.0 % mostly heterosexual (MH), and 86.7 % completely heterosexual (CH). After adjusting for demographic characteristics and sibling clustering, LGs, BIs, and MHs reported more depressive distress than CHs. This relation was partially mediated (i.e., explained) for LGs, BIs, and MHs relative to CHs by less secure attachment. A conditional relation (i.e., interaction) indicated that BIs reported more distress than CHs as GNBs increased for BIs; no comparable relation was found for LGs versus CHs. Sibling comparisons found that sexual minorities (LGs, BIs, and MHs) reported more depressive distress, less secure attachment, and more childhood GNBs than CH siblings; the mothers reported less affection for their sexual-minority than CH offspring. The findings suggest that attachment and childhood gender nonconformity differentially pattern depressive distress by sexual orientation. Attachment and related experiences are more problematic for sexual minorities than for their CH siblings.

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Notes

  1. We use the term “attachment paradigm” to encompass the two attachment factors of attachment and maternal affection. By so doing, we avoid the confusion of referring to the set of two factors by the same name as one of the factors.

  2. Although attachment and maternal affection use the same items, the constructs are not identical. Attachment is not symmetrical; it flows from the child to the parent because attachment represents safety and security (Main, 1999). A child does not naturally provide safety and security to a parent, except perhaps during a parent’s old age. Otherwise, evidence of a parent seeking safety and security from a child represents parental psychopathology, which creates severe disruption of the child’s attachment.

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Acknowledgments

The GUTS cohort has been funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Grants HD45763 and HD57368 from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Corliss is supported by a career development award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA23610). Drs. Corliss and Austin are also supported by the Leadership Education in Adolescent Health Project, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration Grant 6T71-MC00009.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The City University of New York–The City College and Graduate Center, Convent Avenue and 138th Street, NAC 7-120, New York, NY, 10031, USA

    Margaret Rosario

  2. Department of Society and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Sari L. Reisner & S. Bryn Austin

  3. Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Heather L. Corliss & S. Bryn Austin

  4. Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    David Wypij

  5. Department of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    David Wypij

  6. Department of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    David Wypij, A. Lindsay Frazier & S. Bryn Austin

  7. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    A. Lindsay Frazier

  8. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    A. Lindsay Frazier

  9. Channing Laboratory, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    A. Lindsay Frazier & S. Bryn Austin

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  1. Margaret Rosario
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Correspondence to Margaret Rosario.

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Rosario, M., Reisner, S.L., Corliss, H.L. et al. Disparities in Depressive Distress by Sexual Orientation in Emerging Adults: The Roles of Attachment and Stress Paradigms. Arch Sex Behav 43, 901–916 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0129-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-013-0129-6

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