(PS6-27) Health and Wellbeing of Sexual and Gender Minority Graduate Students

Abstract Text: Although extensive literature describes the health disparities faced by sexual and gender minority individuals, little research has examined the graduate student population specifically. Furthermore, much research about SGM populations does not separate sexual and gender minority identities in analyses, potentially obscuring differences between these groups. In the current study, 437 graduate students (23.8% with an sexual and/or gender minority identity) from seven college campuses participated in a survey about their campus experiences and health. We examined the relationship between sexual and gender minority identities and depression, physical health, perceived stress, and happiness through four stepwise linear regressions. We controlled for the effects of other demographic variables (age, racial/ethnic minority identity, female gender, international student status, and non-traditional student status) by running them in the first block of our regression, with sexual minority and gender minority identities as the second block.

In all four health and wellbeing regressions the sexual and gender minority identity block explained a significant amount of the measure's variance beyond the block of other demographic variables. The block containing the other demographic variables explained a significant amount of the variance in depression, perceived stress, and happiness scores, but not in physical health scores. Age, sexual minority identity, and gender minority identity were significant predictors of depression, such that younger, sexual and gender minority students had higher depression scores. Women, gender minority students, and sexual minority students reported significantly more physical health concerns. Age and sexual minority identity were significant predictors of perceived stress, with younger and sexual minority students endorsing higher stress. Lastly, happiness was significantly predicted by the woman, age, and gender minority variables, such that female, older, and cisgender students reported higher happiness. These results indicate that the health disparities observed for sexual and gender minority individuals largely apply to graduate students as well. Universities and mentors of graduate students should consider the health disparities their sexual and gender minority students face in their approaches to mentoring these students. Furthermore, healthcare providers should attend to the impacts of both graduate student and sexual and gender minority identities on health and consider treatments tailored to these particular populations.