The relationship between depression, substance use, perceived stigma and internalized homophobia in sexual minorities living in Lebanon : a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Sexual Minority groups such as the LGBTQI+ community in Lebanon go through multiple additional stressors from the rest of the population that entails these individual to internalize homophobia, have perceived stigma, experience depression and use substances such as alcohol and drugs to mediate these stressors. This study investigated this phenomena in a Lebanese context. The scales used were the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Brief Drug Abuse Screening Test (Brief DAST), the Brief Michigan Alcohol Screening Test (Brief MAST), Internalized Homophobia Revised scale as well as Perceived Stigma scale. A survey was deployed using snowball sampling and garnered an approximate of 200 participants. Results showed several relationships among the variables. Bivariate correlations among the key study variables showed that internalized homophobia positively correlated with depression and negatively with perceived stigma and substance use respectively. Partial correlations among the key variables controlling for substance use showed that internalized homophobia and depression positively correlated, while perceived stigma and depression negatively correlated. Depression did not differ between men and women, but was higher in people who identify as non-binary. Findings from this study highlight the importance of including women and non-binary people in studies on sexual minorities, and the need for further investigation of the minority stress model on diverse contexts.