Internalized homophobia, mental health, sexual behaviors, and outness of gay/bisexual men from Southwest China

International Journal for Equity in Health

Research

Lijun Zheng¹  Wenjian Xu¹  Yin Xu²  Yong Zheng³ 

[1] Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (MOE), Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (MOE), Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Department of Psychology, King’s College London, London, UK;Key Laboratory of Cognition and Personality (MOE), Southwest University, Chongqing, China;Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, 400715, Chongqing, China;

关键词: Internalized homophobia;    Mental health;    Sexual behaviors;    Outness;    Chinese gay/bisexual men;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12939-017-0530-1

 received in 2016-11-18, accepted in 2017-02-13,  发布年份 2017

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSocial attitudes toward male homosexuality in China so far are still not optimistic. Sexual minorities in China have reported high levels of internalized homophobia.MethodsThis Internet-based study examined the associations among internalized homophobia, mental health, sexual behaviors, and outness among 435 gay/bisexual men in Southwest China from 2014 to 2015. Latent profile analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, univariate logistic regression, and separate multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted.ResultsThis descriptive study found the Internalized Homophobia Scale to be suitable for use in China. The sample demonstrated a high prevalence of internalized homophobia. Latent profile analysis suggested a 2-class solution as optimal, and a high level of internalized homophobia was significantly associated with greater psychological distress (Wald = 6.49, AOR = 1.66), transactional sex during the previous 6 months (Wald = 5.23, AOR = 2.77), more sexual compulsions (Wald = 14.05, AOR = 2.12), and the concealment of sexual identity from others (Wald = 30.70, AOR = 0.30) and parents (Wald = 6.72, AOR = 0.49).ConclusionsThese findings contribute to our understanding of internalized homophobia in China, and highlight the need to decrease gay-related psychological stress/distress and improve public health services.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s). 2017