ArticleBehavior genetics2023
Bidirectional Causal Associations Between Same-Sex Attraction and Psychological Distress: Testing Moderation and Mediation Effects.
Article in Behavior genetics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- How much is sexual minority stress confounded with familial causes? A systematic multilevel meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Personality and mental health as mediators linking childhood maltreatment to intimate partner violence victimization: a Mendelian randomization-direction of causation twin study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Mental health in sexual minorities: Change over time in a Finnish population-based sample.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- The Chain Mediation Effect of Victimization and Neuroticism on the Association Between Sexual Orientation and Depressive Symptoms: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Same-Sex Relationships and Criminal Behavior: A Total Population Study in The Netherlands.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- Childhood Gender Nonconformity and Parental Maltreatment as Mediators of Sexual Orientation Disparities in Childhood Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties.Archives of sexual behavior · 2024Article
- The Challenges and Opportunities for Mental Health Twin Research in Nigeria.Behavior genetics · 2024Article
- Using Instrumental Variables to Measure Causation over Time in Cross-Lagged Panel Models.Multivariate behavioral researchArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Only one study has examined bidirectional causality between sexual minority status (having same-sex attraction) and psychological distress. We combined twin and genomic data from 8700 to 9700 participants in the UK Twins Early Development Study cohort at ≈21 years to replicate and extend these bidirectional causal effects using separate unidirectional Mendelian Randomization-Direction of Causation models. We further modified these models to separately investigate sex differences, moderation by childhood factors (retrospectively-assessed early-life adversity and prospectively-assessed childhood gender nonconformity), and mediation by victimization. All analyses were carried out in OpenMx in R. Same-sex attraction causally influenced psychological distress with significant reverse causation (beta = 0.19 and 0.17; 95% CIs = 0.09, 0.29 and 0.08, 0.25 respectively) and no significant sex differences. The same-sex attraction → psychological distress causal path was partly mediated by victimization (12.5%) while the reverse causal path was attenuated by higher childhood gender nonconformity (moderation coefficient = -0.09, 95% CI: -0.13, -0.04).
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.