TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2019//
TI  - Early roots of sexual-orientation health disparities: associations between sexual attraction, health and well-being in a national sample of Australian adolescents
JO  - Journal of epidemiology and community health
A1  - Perales, Francisco
A1  - Campbell, Alice
SP  - 954
EP  - 962
VL  - 73
IS  - 10
N2  - BACKGROUND: Research documents substantial adolescent health disparities by sexual orientation, but studies are confined to a small number of countries-chiefly the USA. We provide first-time evidence of associations between sexual orientation and adolescent health/well-being in a new country-Australia. We also add to knowledge by examining health/well-being outcomes not previously analysed in national samples, considering adolescents reporting no sexual attractions, and rank-ordering sexual-orientation health disparities by magnitude.  METHODS: Data from an Australian national probability sample of 14/15 years old (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children, n=3318) and regression models adjusted for confounding and for multiple comparisons were used to examine the associations between sexual attraction and 30 outcomes spanning multiple domains of health/well-being-including socio-emotional functioning, health-related quality of life, depressive symptoms, health-related behaviours, social support, self-harm, suicidality, victimisation, self-concept, school belonging and global health/well-being assessments.  RESULTS: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning adolescents displayed significantly worse health/well-being than their heterosexual peers in all outcomes (p<0.05). The magnitude of the disparities ranged between 0.13 and 0.75 SD, and was largest in the domains of self-harm, suicidality, peer problems and emotional problems. There were fewer differences between the heterosexual and no-attraction groups. Worse outcomes were observed among both-sex-attracted adolescents compared with same-sex-attracted adolescents, and sexual-minority girls compared with sexual-minority boys.  CONCLUSIONS: Consistent with the minority stress model and recent international scholarship, sexual-minority status is an important risk factor for poor adolescent health/well-being across domains in Australia. Interventions aimed at addressing sexual-orientation health disparities within Australian adolescent populations are urgently required.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0143-005X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-211588
ID  - ref1
ER  -