Predicting self-harm in an ethnically diverse sample of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the United Kingdom

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Rehman, Z, Lopes, B and Jaspal, R ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8463-9519, 2020. Predicting self-harm in an ethnically diverse sample of lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the United Kingdom. International Journal of Social Psychiatry, 66 (4), pp. 349-360. ISSN 0020-7640

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020908889

Abstract

Background: Poor mental health is prevalent in lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people due in part to social stigma. The social, psychological and clinical risk factors for self-harm among LGB people are unclear, which limits our ability to predict when and how this will occur and, crucially, how to prevent it.

Aims: Drawing on the cognitive-behavioral approach in clinical psychology, this study identifies the predictors of self-harm in LGB people in the United Kingdom.

Results: Women, lesbians, those with lower income and younger people were more likely to engage in self-harm. Self-harmers exhibited much more discrimination, LGB victimization and, thus, internalized homophobia and depressive symptomatology than non-self-harmers. The structural equation model showed direct effects of age and gender, and indirect effects of income and sexual orientation, on self-harm, through the mediating variables of discrimination, LGB victimization and internalized homophobia.

Conclusions: Consistent with the cognitive-behavioral model, the results indicate that exposure to situational stressors can increase the risk of developing a self-hatred and depressive psychological self-schema, resulting in greater risk of self-harm as a maladaptive coping strategy. An integrative clinical intervention for enhancing psychological wellbeing in LGB people is proposed to mitigate the risk of self-harm in this population.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	International Journal of Social Psychiatry
Creators:	Rehman, Z., Lopes, B. and Jaspal, R.
Publisher:	Sage
Date:	1 June 2020
Volume:	66
Number:	4
ISSN:	0020-7640
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/0020764020908889 DOI 1313262 Other
Divisions:	Schools > School of Social Sciences
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	02 Apr 2020 15:07
Last Modified:	17 Aug 2020 13:01
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/39541