Community connection is associated with lower psychological distress for sexual minority women who view community connection positively

Sexual minority women (SMW) are a highly diverse group, and have accordingly varied experiences of, and relationships to the LGBTQ community. This study explored factors associated with sexual minority women’s evaluations of connectedness to the LGBTQ community in Australia and assessed how these evaluations impacted the benefit conferred by community connectedness against psychological distress. The sample for this study was taken from Private Lives 3, a national Australian survey of LGBTQ adults aged over 18 years and included 2,424 cisgender women. Private Lives 3 was granted ethical approval from the La Trobe University Human Research Ethics Committee.