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Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China

Chinese gay men are preferentially vulnerable to mental health problems because of deep-rooted, traditional social influence that overemphasizes heterosexual marriage, fertility, and filial piety. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November to December 2017 using the Chinese version of the...

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Autores principales: Liu, Xiaojun, Jiang, Dongdong, Chen, Xiangfan, Tan, Anran, Hou, Yitan, He, Meikun, Lu, Yuanan, Mao, Zongfu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29795013
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061065
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author Liu, Xiaojun
Jiang, Dongdong
Chen, Xiangfan
Tan, Anran
Hou, Yitan
He, Meikun
Lu, Yuanan
Mao, Zongfu
author_facet Liu, Xiaojun
Jiang, Dongdong
Chen, Xiangfan
Tan, Anran
Hou, Yitan
He, Meikun
Lu, Yuanan
Mao, Zongfu
author_sort Liu, Xiaojun
collection PubMed
description Chinese gay men are preferentially vulnerable to mental health problems because of deep-rooted, traditional social influence that overemphasizes heterosexual marriage, fertility, and filial piety. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November to December 2017 using the Chinese version of the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) to assess the status of, and factors associated with the mental health of Chinese gay men. Unadjusted associations between demographic factors and the total score of SCL-90-R were examined using t/F tests or person correlation analysis. The main factors that were most predictive of the aggregate score of SCL-90-R were identified by multiple linear regressions. A total of 367 gay men participated in this survey with an average score of SCL-90-R of 180.78 ± 79.58. The scores of seven dimensions (OCS, INTS, DEPR, ANX, HOS, PHOA, PARI) for Chinese gay men were found to be significantly higher than the national norm (all p < 0.001). Age (B = −1.088, SE = 0.478, p = 0.023), educational level (B = −14.053, SE = 5.270, p = 0.008), and degree of coming out publicly (B = −23.750, SE = 4.690, p < 0.001) were protective factors for participants’ mental health status. A gay man who is the only child in his family was more likely to obtain a higher total score of SCL-90-R in China (B = 59.321, SE = 7.798, p < 0.001). Our study reveals the worrying mental health status of Chinese gay men. Shifts in familial, governmental, and societal normas are suggested to improve the current social acceptance towards sexual minority men, as well as to reduce detrimental health effects.
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spelling pubmed-60251402018-07-16 Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China Liu, Xiaojun Jiang, Dongdong Chen, Xiangfan Tan, Anran Hou, Yitan He, Meikun Lu, Yuanan Mao, Zongfu Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Chinese gay men are preferentially vulnerable to mental health problems because of deep-rooted, traditional social influence that overemphasizes heterosexual marriage, fertility, and filial piety. A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November to December 2017 using the Chinese version of the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) to assess the status of, and factors associated with the mental health of Chinese gay men. Unadjusted associations between demographic factors and the total score of SCL-90-R were examined using t/F tests or person correlation analysis. The main factors that were most predictive of the aggregate score of SCL-90-R were identified by multiple linear regressions. A total of 367 gay men participated in this survey with an average score of SCL-90-R of 180.78 ± 79.58. The scores of seven dimensions (OCS, INTS, DEPR, ANX, HOS, PHOA, PARI) for Chinese gay men were found to be significantly higher than the national norm (all p < 0.001). Age (B = −1.088, SE = 0.478, p = 0.023), educational level (B = −14.053, SE = 5.270, p = 0.008), and degree of coming out publicly (B = −23.750, SE = 4.690, p < 0.001) were protective factors for participants’ mental health status. A gay man who is the only child in his family was more likely to obtain a higher total score of SCL-90-R in China (B = 59.321, SE = 7.798, p < 0.001). Our study reveals the worrying mental health status of Chinese gay men. Shifts in familial, governmental, and societal normas are suggested to improve the current social acceptance towards sexual minority men, as well as to reduce detrimental health effects. MDPI 2018-05-24 2018-06 /pmc/articles/PMC6025140/ /pubmed/29795013 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061065 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Liu, Xiaojun
Jiang, Dongdong
Chen, Xiangfan
Tan, Anran
Hou, Yitan
He, Meikun
Lu, Yuanan
Mao, Zongfu
Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title_full Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title_fullStr Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title_full_unstemmed Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title_short Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China
title_sort mental health status and associated contributing factors among gay men in china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6025140/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29795013
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15061065
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