“Increased Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms in Non-Heterosexual Individuals: Moderation by Childhood Factors Using a Twin Design”, 2022-01-15 (; similar):
The phenotypic associations between sexual orientation and psychosocial distress (high depressive and anxiety symptoms) are not substantially moderated by recalled childhood factors increase (these include childhood gender nonconformity, early-life adversities and poor parent-child relationships).
Using the classical twin design, the genetic component of the relationship between sexual orientation and psychological distress increases as childhood gender nonconformity increases.
The individual-specific environmental influences on this relationship decrease and then increase as childhood gender nonconformity increases.
Genetic risk for psychological distress may manifest more readily among non-heterosexual adults who were gender-nonconforming during childhood; however, non-genetic (individual-specific) protective processes may partly mitigate this risk.
Background: Evidence indicates that minority stress does not sufficiently explain mental health disparities in non-heterosexual compared to heterosexual individuals. We investigated alternative mechanisms whereby childhood factors (childhood gender nonconformity, early-life adversities and parent-child interactions) moderate the relationships between sexual orientation and depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Method: The sample comprised twin pairs from the Finnish Genetics of Sexuality and Aggression cohort (n = 3,166 individuals, mean age = 37.5 ± 2.93 years). Twin analyses using structural equation modeling was performed in OpenMx. Specifically, we tested whether childhood factors differentially moderated the underlying genetic and environmental influences on the relationships between sexual orientation, and depressive and anxiety symptoms.
Results: The associations between non-heterosexuality, and depressive and anxiety symptoms (r = 0.09, 0.10 respectively) were statistically-significantly influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. The genetic influences explaining the relationships of sexual orientation with depressive and anxiety symptoms were maximal at high levels of childhood gender nonconformity (βA = 0.09 and 0.11 respectively) whereas the individual-specific environmental influences on these relationships were maximal at lower levels of childhood gender nonconformity (βE = −0.10).
Limitations: Childhood factors were assessed retrospectively in a cross-sectional design.
Conclusion: Childhood gender nonconformity is associated with increased genetic and decreased individual-specific environmental influences on mental health among non-heterosexual individuals. Childhood gender nonconformity may, thus, enhance genetic risk and non-genetic protective processes for depressive and anxiety symptoms among non-heterosexual individuals.
[Keywords: sexual orientation, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, childhood stressors, behavior genetics]