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Students who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or queer or who are questioning their sexuality are more likely to use their school’s counseling services, but that population also reported more mental health issues, a new study has found.
In 2013, the RAND Corporation, a policy think tank, surveyed more than 33,000 students at two- and four-year public universities in California about mental health problems. About 7 percent indicated they were LGBQQ (queer and questioning).
The results of that study were released Tuesday. It was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
LGBQQ students reported higher rates of psychological distress compared to their heterosexual counterparts -- about 26 percent said they were suffering from psychological problems compared to 18 percent of the heterosexual population.
About 63 percent of LGBQQ students reported high levels of stress within the month they were surveyed, versus 55 percent of heterosexual students.
Nearly 31 percent of LGBQQ students said they used some sort of therapeutic service, with a little less than 16 percent using on-campus counseling. Only about 18 percent of heterosexual students used some sort of therapy, and about 9 percent used the college and university services.
“Our study underscores the need for additional actions to increase access to and use of mental health services among all students,” Bradley Stein, one of the co-authors of the study and a RAND physician scientist, said in a statement Tuesday. “It also highlights the need for efforts to ensure that campuses’ mental health services are sensitive and responsive to the needs of sexual minority students, enabling all students to address their mental health needs and maximize their chances for success in college and beyond.”
