Comparing the Impact of COVID-19-Related Social Distancing on Mood and Psychiatric Indicators in Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) and Non-SGM Individuals

Abstract

Empirical evidence demonstrates mental health disparities between sexual and gender minority individuals (SGM) compared with cisgender heterosexual individuals. SGM individuals report elevated rates of emotional distress, symptoms related to mood and anxiety disorders, self-harm, and suicidal ideation and behavior. Social support is inversely related to psychiatric symptoms, regardless of SGM status. The COVID-19 pandemic-with its associated limited social interactions-represents an unprecedented period of acute distress with potential reductions in accessibility of social support, which might be of particular concern for SGM individuals' mental well-being. In the present study, we explored the extent to which potential changes in mental health outcomes (depressive symptoms, worry, perceived stress, positive and negative affect) throughout the duration of the pandemic were related to differences in perceptions of social support and engagement in virtual social activity, as a function of SGM status. Utilizing a large sample of US adults (N = 1,014; 18% reported SGM status), we assessed psychiatric symptoms, perceptions of social isolation, and amount of time spent socializing virtually at 3 time windows during the pandemic (between March 21 and May 21). Although SGM individuals reported greater levels of depression compared with non-SGM individuals at all 3 time points, there was no interaction between time and SGM status. Across all participants, mental health outcomes improved across time. Perceived social isolation was associated with poorer mental health outcomes. Further, time spent engaging in virtual socialization was associated with reduced depression, but only for those in self-reported quarantine. We discuss these results in terms of the nature of our sample and its impact on the generalizability of these findings to other SGM samples as well as directions for future research aimed at understanding potential health disparities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; depression; gender; mood; sexual orientation; social isolation; well-being.

Figure 1

Schematic of study timeline. Enrollment for study began on March 20, 2020. Daily surveys were collected from March 21, 2020 to May 20, 2020. For analyses, we separated the timeline into three separate time bins. Early Time bin (T1) = March 21st–April 3rd; Middle Time bin (T2) = April 14th–April 27th; Late Time bin = May 7th–May 20th.

Figure 2

Changes in mood and psychiatric indicators across time and groups (Model 1). Error bars show 95% confidence intervals. Depression was consistently elevated across all three time points for SGM compared to non-SGM. Stress, on the other hand, was differentially affected early on (p = 0.028), such that non-SGM reported decreased stress from early to mid, and SGM didn't report a reduction in stress until the late time point.

Figure 3

Changes in social engagement and reported feelings of isolation across time and groups (Models 2 and 3). Error bars show 95% confidence intervals. SGM and non-SGM reported similar patterns of progressively decreasing engagement in virtual socializing across the three time points, corresponding to reduced feelings of isolation specifically at the final time point.

Figure 4

Effects of minutes spent socializing virtually and quarantine on positive affect and depression symptomology (Model 4). Minutes spent socializing virtually is log₂ transformed (see text) and then mean centered (i.e., 0 represents the mean of the log transformed minutes across all observations). Shading around the lines show the 95% confidence interval.