The Impact of COVID-19 on Depressive Symptoms through the Lens of Sexual Orientation

• Main Authors: Mariana Duarte, Henrique Pereira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021-04-01
• Series: Brain Sciences
• Subjects: depressive symptoms; fear of COVID-19; negative impact of COVID-19; sexual orientation; LGB people
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/11/4/523

This research seeks to explore the impact of COVID-19 on depressive symptoms, analyzing discrepancies of sexual orientation in a Portuguese-speaking sample. 1590 individuals participated, of which 63% were women, and 88% self-identified as straight. Participants responded to the depression sub-scale of the Beck Symptoms Iventory-18, the fear of COVID-19 scale and the COVID-19 negative impact scale. Depressive symptoms observed were higher than expected, and several significant differences were obtained: women and self-identified bisexual participants had higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to male and straight and gay or lesbian participants. Depressive symptoms negatively correlated with age and positively correlated with COVID-19 aggravated responses, fear of COVID-19, and negative impact of COVID-19. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that age, gender and sexual orientation explained 6% of the variance of depressive symptoms, and when fear and the negative impact of COVID-19 was added, the model explained 23% of results. This study provides an important contribution to the understanding of factors arising from the pandemic that may have an impact on the mental health of sexual minorities.