Relationship Quality and Mental Health Among Sexual and Gender Minorities

In a recent article published in Journal of Family Psychology, Sarno, Newcomb & Whitton (2021) note that, “sexual and gender minorities assigned female at birth (i.e., sexual minority women, transgender men, and gender diverse [SMW TGD] individuals) experience disproportionately high rates of anxiety, depression, and substance use problems.” They also say that involvement in healthy romantic relationships reduces negative impacts on well-being. They chose to study associations of romantic relationship quality with symptoms of anxiety and depression, and alcohol and cannabis use problems among SMW TGD individuals in romantic relationships, using a within-persons approach. From the abstract: “Their participants included 213 SMW TGD individuals (mean age: 20.63; 70.9% cisgender women, 7.5% transgender men, and 19.2% gender diverse). Higher relationship quality was associated with better mental health and substance use outcomes. Relationship quality at the between-persons level moderated the within-persons association of internalized heterosexism with depression, and of microaggressions with cannabis use problems. No other interaction effects were significant. The within-persons associations found in this study lend important support to relationship interventions based on theories that improvements in romantic relationship quality will result in improved well-being over time.”

In the end, they advocate interventions to assist those who are sexual and gender minorities in developing healthy relationships. Once again, this research highlights the importance of nuanced questions about relationship history, substance use, and mental health symptoms.