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. 2025 Oct;60(10):2455-2468.
doi: 10.1007/s00127-025-02951-y. Epub 2025 Jun 23.

Moderating effects of self-defined sexual orientation on the relation between social factors and depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation among French young adults

Junko Kose  1 , Camille Davisse-Paturet  2 , Anne Pastorello  3 , Laurence Meyer  3   4 , Maria Melchior  2 , Cécile Vuillermoz  3 , Alexandra Rouquette  3   4 ; EpiCov Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Moderating effects of self-defined sexual orientation on the relation between social factors and depressive symptoms or suicidal ideation among French young adults

Junko Kose et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2025 Oct.

Abstract

Purpose: Disparities in mental health across sexual orientation groups and among young adults have long been discussed. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the moderating effects of sexual orientation on the associations between social factors and depressive symptoms as well as suicidal ideation in young adults.

Methods: The study included 6,337 participants aged 18-25y in 2022 from the French EpiCov cohort. The outcome variables were depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation. Poisson regressions with robust error variance were performed to investigate the associations between social factors and outcomes according to sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, bisexual, other, or not defining themselves according to their sexuality: sexual minority (SM); heterosexual or not wishing to answer: Not belonging to SM (NSM)).

Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation was higher in the SM than in the NSM group. Regarding depressive symptoms, significant moderating effects of sexual orientation were observed for female vs male sex (NSM: adjusted Prevalence Ratio (aPR) 1.58[1.28-1.95], SM: aPR 1.03[0.78-1.36]) and age category 22-25y vs 18-21y (NSM: aPR 1.32[1.05-1.67], SM: aPR 0.78[0.59-1.03]). Regarding suicidal ideation, significant moderating effect was observed for not being vs being in a relationship (NSM: aPR 1.55[1.14-2.12], SM: aPR 0.82[0.59-1.13]).

Conclusion: In this study conducted in 2022, well-known social risk factors of mental problems do not explain the higher prevalence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation among young SM group. Further studies are needed to understand the specific challenges faced by these young people.

Keywords: Depressive symptoms; Epidemiology; Sexual orientation; Social factors; Suicidal ideation; Young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration. Conflict of interest: The authors declare no competing interest. Ethics statement: The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Comité de Protection des Personnes Sud Méditerranée III 2020- A0119138 and France’s National Data Protection Agency (Commission Nationale Informatique et Libertés, CNIL, MLD/MFI/AR205138). The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of participants
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Associations between social factors and depressive symptoms according to sexual orientation (N = 6,337 aged 18–25y; EpiCov study in 2022; weighted and pooled)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Associations between social factors and suicidal ideation according to sexual orientation (N = 6,337 aged 18–25y; EpiCov study in 2022; weighted and pooled)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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