Psychological distress among LGBT and heterosexual adults

Joint meet on 3^rd World Congress on Epilepsy and Brain Disorders & 16^th Annual Conference on Dementia and Alzheimers Disease & 2^nd International Conference on Stress Management

February 26, 2021 | Webinar

Anmolpreet Singh

Indian Institute of Psychology and Research, India

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Epilepsy J

Abstract :

In India, even though homosexual sex has been legalised but they continue to be victims of violence in different forms. Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta and Bangalore are the hub of the Indian Gay movement. Homosexual people have always been subjected to discrimination and violence due to heteronormative stereotypes. Religious and social conventions and patriarchy make matters worse in many conservative and traditionâ??bound societies. This is a predominant fact in India, rendering difficulties for LGBT people to be accepted and treated as equals in society. Meyer, 2003, “Minority-stress Model”, has also explained that among the LGBT population, social stress leads to poorer mental health. Vulnerability towards mental disorders can be measured by assessing levels of psychological distress. The aim of the present study is to compare levels of non- specific psychological distress among LGBT people and Heterosexual people. Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) was administered on 7 different groups of sexual orientations i.e. gay, lesbian, bisexual male, bisexual female, transgender, heterosexual male, heterosexual female. Every group had 30 participants, 210 participants in total. Results show that transgender group has the highest distress levels among all the seven groups. It was also found out that LGBT group has higher level of distress as compared to heterosexual group. Minority sex groups are most vulnerable to mental disorders like depression and anxiety. Family acceptance, education, health care provisions employment and societal acceptance can bring a positive change in current scenario.

Biography :

Anmolpreet Singh has completed his MSc. Psychology at the age of 23 from Indian Institute of Psychology and Research. This paper was part of his dissertation. This paper was written under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Jasmine, PhD and Dr. Sonia Soans, PhD. He was best outgoing student for the year 2019. Anmolpreet has worked as mental health associate and a research associate for one year. He is passionate about creating mental health awareness and brining mental health services to every section of the society.