LGBTQ+ Women and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic

LGBTQ+ Women and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article LGBTQ+ Women and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic Izaskun Zuazu, Yana van der Meulen Rodgers This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6819177/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract We analyze whether the pandemic and its containment policies affected the mental health of women differently by their sexual orientation and gender identity. Using a sample of 26 European Union countries, we find that LGBTQ+ women were 8 to 11 percentage points more likely than heterosexual, cisgender women to report anxiety, worries about mental well-being, and depression during the pandemic. We uncover a notable interaction between LGBTQ+ status and household composition, by which the presence of children below the age of 15 reduces the probability of anxiety for LGBTQ+ women. Causal mediation analysis shows that the presence of children partially mediates the link between LGBTQ+ and anxiety, explaining 10% of the total effect. LGBTQ+ women are unconditionally associated with a higher prevalence of worries about mental well-being and depression. Containment policies also mattered: LGBTQ+ women were more likely than heterosexual, cisgender women to have detrimental mental health effects from workplace and office closures. JEL Codes: I14; I18; J16 LGBTQ+ women mental health COVID-19 pandemic EU countries causal mediation analysis Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6819177","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":473272549,"identity":"bf0ef302-282d-4978-866f-9d5232b57f78","order_by":0,"name":"Izaskun Zuazu","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"University of Duisburg-Essen","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Izaskun","middleName":"","lastName":"Zuazu","suffix":""},{"id":473272550,"identity":"a5871c73-9a84-4fee-b58c-f30b5f572857","order_by":1,"name":"Yana van der Meulen Rodgers","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yana","middleName":"van der Meulen","lastName":"Rodgers","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-06-04 10:08:16","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6819177/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6819177/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":88831000,"identity":"a2af47d4-14d4-4c5d-9b00-08ba3af9967a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-08-11 21:46:40","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1189419,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6819177/v1_covered_87f6065f-feba-40e6-8d4d-f969b75d2247.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"LGBTQ+ Women and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"LGBTQ+ women, mental health, COVID-19 pandemic, EU countries, causal mediation analysis","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6819177/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6819177/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eWe analyze whether the pandemic and its containment policies affected the mental health of women differently by their sexual orientation and gender identity. 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