Sexual preferences, shame, psychological and physical health: What’s the relationship?

Abstract: This study investigated the empirical generalizability of the relationship between sexual minorities Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT), shame and mental and physical health. It was an extension of existing studies and inspired by the framework of Mereish and Poteat’s study in 2015, “A Relational Model of Sexual Minority Mental and Physical Health”. First hypothesis was that there would be a positive correlation between individuals with non-heterosexual sexual preference and shame. The second hypothesis was that there would be a positive correlation between psychological and physical poor health within the minority groups. Sexual preferences were examined as the third hypothesis, exploring the compatibility between self-identified sexual preferences and assigned sexuality using the Kinsey scale. 144 Participants aged from 18 to 70 years, participated in an online survey design where they were asked 87 questions. While this study could not confirm the two first hypotheses, a positive correlation between mental distress and physical symptoms, and a significant correlation between the self-identified and the sexual preferences identified by the Kinsey Scale were found. Implications of these findings were discussed with reference to the complexity of measuring sexual minorities groups, the influence of written instructions, choice of instruments and suggestions are made for future research.