Clustered Patterns of Behavioral and Health-Related Variables Among Young Lesbian Women

Abstract

Lesbian women are at increased risk for a variety of mental and physical health problems compared to heterosexual women. In order to inform treatment and prevention, the purpose of this study was to examine behavioral and health-related patterns among lesbian women and elucidate how these patterns are associated with general discrimination, sexual minority stress, affect, and social support. A sample of self-identified lesbian women (N = 436) completed an online survey from August 2014–March 2015. A latent profile analysis was conducted using measures of body mass index, hazardous alcohol use, binge eating, eating disorder risk, and exercise as indicators. A 5-class solution best fit the data and included two healthy groups: (a) low health risk, moderate exercise (54%), (b) low health risk + high exercise (22%); and three unhealthy risk groups: (c) obese + binge eating (14%); (d) disordered eating + hazardous alcohol use (5%); (e) disordered eating + high exercise (5%). The three unhealthy classes generally reported more general discrimination, sexual minority stress, social anxiety, negative affect, and lower social support compared to the healthy classes. These findings show that behavioral and health-related variables cluster together in several distinct patterns among lesbian women. In addition, general discrimination and sexual minority stress and associated psychosocial functioning may be related to these maladaptive behavioral and health-related patterns and may be important to consider in behavioral interventions.