COVID-19, Depressive Symptoms and Psychosocial Risks through the Lens of Sexual Orientation

• Autor(a) principal: Duarte, Mariana Ribeiro
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.6/11919
• topic: Brazil; Impacto Negativo da Covid-19; Medo da Covid-19; Orientação Sexual; Pessoas Lgb; Portugal; Riscos Psicossociais; Sintomas Depressivos; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Psicologia

This dissertation aims to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Portuguese and Brazilian LGB individuals, in their depressive symptoms and at the psychosocial level. At first, with the article entitled “The Impact of COVID-19 on Depressive Symptoms through the Lens of Sexual Orientation” we sought to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on depressive symptoms, analyzing the discrepancies in sexual orientation in a sample of 1590 Portuguese and Brazilian individuals. After the participants answered the depression subscale of the Beck Symptoms Inventory-18 (BSI-18), the fear of COVID-19 scale, and the negative impact of COVID-19 scale, it was possible to conclude that the observed depressive symptoms were higher than expected, with women and bisexual participants having higher levels of depressive symptoms compared to male, heterosexual and gay or lesbian participants. In addition, depressive symptoms correlated positively with the aggravated responses of COVID-19, fear of COVID-19 and negative impact of COVID-19. Hierarchical linear regression analysis showed that age, gender and sexual orientation explained 6% of the variance in depressive symptoms. When fear and negative impact of COVID-19 were added, the model explained 23% of the results. Secondly, the article entitled "Psychosocial Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People living in Portugal and Brazil - A Qualitative Study" sought to understand the psychosocial impact of the pandemic on the experiences and perceptions of 65 self-identified LGB individuals from Portugal and Brazil. After the participants answered the question “As a lesbian, gay, bisexual (or other) self-identified person, please elaborate on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted your life.” it was possible to conclude that several themes, including mental health, isolation, relationships, LGBTQI issues, coping strategies and changes, and problems related to work, education and finances were impacted by the pandemic. These investigations offer an important contribution to understanding the factors arising from the pandemic that may have impacted the mental health and general well-being of sexual minorities, demonstrating what challenges LGB people face in a heteronormative and heterosexist society.