IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v69y2009i1p85-93.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The association of sexual orientation with self-rated health, and cigarette and alcohol use in Mexican adolescents and youths

Author

Listed:
  • Ortiz-Hernández, Luis
  • Gómez Tello, Blanca Lilia
  • Valdés, Jesús

Abstract

Evidence of health inequities associated with sexual orientation has been gathered for industrialized countries. The situation for lesbians, gay males, and bisexuals (LGB) from middle- or low-income countries may be worse than those in industrialized nations. Here, we analyze the relationship of sexual orientation with self-rated health and cigarette and alcohol use among a representative sample of Mexican adolescents and youths between the ages of 12 and 29 years, in order to explore whether this association is mediated by discrimination and violence. Three dimensions of sexual orientation (affective attraction, sexual behavior, and identity) were assessed. The outcomes were self-rated health and cigarette and alcohol use. Compared to heterosexuals, LGB youths more frequently smoked >=6 cigarettes per day, reported having experienced family violence, having crimes perpetrated against them, and having experienced violations of their rights. Among males, gays and bisexuals exhibited a higher risk of poor health than heterosexuals. Compared to heterosexual women, lesbians and bisexual women were more likely to consume alcohol. Many differences in self-rated health and substance use according to sexual orientation were explained by having experienced discrimination and violence. We concluded that lesbian and bisexual females have a higher prevalence of cigarette and alcohol use. It is necessary to develop policies and programs aimed at the reduction of substance abuse among LGB youths (focusing on females who engage in sexual contact with persons of the same gender) and to work against discrimination and violence experienced by LGB people, particularly against non-heterosexual males.

Suggested Citation

  • Ortiz-Hernández, Luis & Gómez Tello, Blanca Lilia & Valdés, Jesús, 2009. "The association of sexual orientation with self-rated health, and cigarette and alcohol use in Mexican adolescents and youths," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 85-93, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:1:p:85-93
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00204-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gilman, S.E. & Cochran, S.D. & Mays, V.M. & Hughes, M. & Ostrow, D. & Kessler, R.C., 2001. "Risk of psychiatric disorders among individuals reporting same-sex sexual partners in the national comorbidity survey," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(6), pages 933-939.
    2. Faulkner, A.H. & Cranston, K., 1998. "Correlates of same-sex sexual behavior in a random sample of Massachusetts high school students," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(2), pages 262-266.
    3. Russell, S.T. & Driscoll, A.K. & Truong, N., 2002. "Adolescent same-sex romantic attractions and relationships: Implications for substance use and abuse," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(2), pages 198-202.
    4. Aaron, D.J. & Markovic, N. & Danielson, M.E. & Honnold, J.A. & Janosky, J.E. & Schmidt, N.J., 2001. "Behavioral risk factors for disease and preventive health practices among lesbians," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(6), pages 972-975.
    5. Russell, S.T. & Franz, B.T. & Driscoll, A.K., 2001. "Same-sex romantic attraction and experiences of violence in adolescence," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(6), pages 903-906.
    6. Gruskin, E.P. & Hart, S. & Gordon, N. & Ackerson, L., 2001. "Patterns of cigarette smoking and alcohol use among lesbians and bisexual women enrolled in a large health maintenance organization," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(6), pages 976-979.
    7. Michael, R.T. & Wadsworth, J. & Feinleib, J. & Johnson, A.M. & Laumann, E.O. & Wellings, K., 1998. "Private sexual behavior, public opinion, and public health policy related to sexually transmitted diseases: A US-British comparison," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 88(5), pages 749-754.
    8. Mays, V.M. & Cochran, S.D., 2001. "Mental health correlates of perceived discrimination among lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults in the United States," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 91(11), pages 1869-1876.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gilbert, Paul A. & Zemore, Sarah E., 2016. "Discrimination and drinking: A systematic review of the evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 178-194.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lhomond, Brigitte & Saurel-Cubizolles, Marie-Josèphe, 2006. "Violence against women and suicide risk: The neglected impact of same-sex sexual behaviour," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(8), pages 2002-2013, April.
    2. Shuai Chen & Jan C. Ours, 2018. "Subjective Well-being and Partnership Dynamics: Are Same-Sex Relationships Different?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(6), pages 2299-2320, December.
    3. Hughes, Tonda & Szalacha, Laura A. & McNair, Ruth, 2010. "Substance abuse and mental health disparities: Comparisons across sexual identity groups in a national sample of young Australian women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 824-831, August.
    4. Davis, Tamara S. & Saltzburg, Susan & Locke, Chris R., 2009. "Supporting the emotional and psychological well being of sexual minority youth: Youth ideas for action," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 1030-1041, September.
    5. Hatzenbuehler, Mark L. & McLaughlin, Katie A. & Xuan, Ziming, 2012. "Social networks and risk for depressive symptoms in a national sample of sexual minority youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(7), pages 1184-1191.
    6. Sansone, Dario, 2019. "Pink work: Same-sex marriage, employment and discrimination," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    7. Michael A. Ash & M. V. Lee Badgett, 2006. "Separate And Unequal: The Effect Of Unequal Access To Employment‐Based Health Insurance On Same‐Sex And Unmarried Different‐Sex Couples," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 24(4), pages 582-599, October.
    8. Daniel Íncera-Fernández & Manuel Gámez-Guadix & Santiago Moreno-Guillén, 2021. "Mental Health Symptoms Associated with Sexualized Drug Use (Chemsex) among Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-20, December.
    9. I-Hsuan Lin & Nai-Ying Ko & Yu-Te Huang & Mu-Hong Chen & Wei-Hsin Lu & Cheng-Fang Yen, 2019. "Effect of Same-Sex Marriage Referendums on the Suicidal Ideation Rate among Nonheterosexual People in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-11, September.
    10. Harvey, Tyler D. & Keene, Danya E. & Pachankis, John E., 2021. "Minority stress, psychosocial health, and survival among gay and bisexual men before, during, and after incarceration," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    11. Berg, Rigmor C. & Ross, Michael W. & Weatherburn, Peter & Schmidt, Axel J., 2013. "Structural and environmental factors are associated with internalised homonegativity in men who have sex with men: Findings from the European MSM Internet Survey (EMIS) in 38 countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 61-69.
    12. Lina Aldén & Lena Edlund & Mats Hammarstedt & Michael Mueller-Smith, 2015. "Effect of Registered Partnership on Labor Earnings and Fertility for Same-Sex Couples: Evidence From Swedish Register Data," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(4), pages 1243-1268, August.
    13. András Költő & Alina Cosma & Honor Young & Nathalie Moreau & Daryna Pavlova & Riki Tesler & Einar B. Thorsteinsson & Alessio Vieno & Elizabeth M. Saewyc & Saoirse Nic Gabhainn, 2019. "Romantic Attraction and Substance Use in 15-Year-Old Adolescents from Eight European Countries," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(17), pages 1-21, August.
    14. Peter Muennig & Meghan Kuebler & Jaeseung Kim & Dusan Todorovic & Zohn Rosen, 2013. "Gender Differences in Material, Psychological, and Social Domains of the Income Gradient in Mortality: Implications for Policy," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-8, March.
    15. Xiaojun Liu & Dongdong Jiang & Xiangfan Chen & Anran Tan & Yitan Hou & Meikun He & Yuanan Lu & Zongfu Mao, 2018. "Mental Health Status and Associated Contributing Factors among Gay Men in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-11, May.
    16. Meyer, Ilan H. & Schwartz, Sharon & Frost, David M., 2008. "Social patterning of stress and coping: Does disadvantaged social statuses confer more stress and fewer coping resources?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 368-379, August.
    17. Collins, Timothy W. & Grineski, Sara E. & Morales, Danielle X., 2017. "Environmental injustice and sexual minority health disparities: A national study of inequitable health risks from air pollution among same-sex partners," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 38-47.
    18. Kendric Coleman, 2016. "The Difference Safe Spaces Make," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(2), pages 21582440166, May.
    19. Valenti, Maria & Campetti, Randi & Schoenborn, Nicole & Quinlan, Kristen & Dash, Kim, 2017. "Building evaluation capacity of local substance abuse prevention programs serving LGBQ populations," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 101-108.
    20. David Schwegman, 2017. "Rental Market Discrimination against Same-Sex Couples: Evidence from an Email Correspondence Audit," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 210, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:69:y:2009:i:1:p:85-93. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.