Surveying psychological wellbeing in a post-pandemic world: the role of family and social support for LGBTQ+ and cisgender heterosexual adults in the UK

Abstract

Studies have emphasized the importance of social support in mitigating the relationship between psychological distress and mental health effects, with family of origin and family of formation providing key sources of social support over the life course. Yet LGBTQ+ people may experience family of origin relationships as a source of distress, while partners and friends may buffer the relationship between minority stress and psychological wellbeing. Through our online survey (March-June 2022) when the psychological stress of the COVID-19 pandemic lifted in the UK, we considered the association between psychological wellbeing and sources of social support by sampling n=1,330 LGBTQ+ and cisgender-heterosexual adults. LGBTQ+ adults generally experienced poorer psychological wellbeing outcomes than did cisgender-heterosexual people. For LGBTQ+ adults social support from either family of origin, special person or friends was not as-sociated with depression, anxiety, or stress levels but social support from family or a special person was positively associated with higher levels of life satisfaction. Our findings indicate the im-portance of considering negative as well as positive wellbeing