Flourishing and distress among queer folx: A dual continuum approach to queer mental health and illness

Abstract

A growing number of researchers have called for the study of mental health to distinguish between mental healthiness and mental illness as two separate yet related continua. The historic empirical emphasis on mental illness has problematized mental health research, especially for queer folx. Using data from a community-based needs-assessment, the Prism Project (Nay 2019), this study analyzes the associations of key variables with mental healthiness (flourishing) and mental illness (distress). The sample included 868 participants from Oklahoma with 56% from Tulsa. As a local, primarily queer (84%) sample, this study is particularly relevant to Oklahoma's queer community. Analysis followed four phases: (a) coding, exploration, and descriptive statistics, (b) bivariate correlations, (c) group differences, and (d) ordinary least squares regression. Results lend support for the two continua construction of mental health and suggest significant relationships between mental health and gender identity, race, and sexual orientation. Results also showed hope to be a strong predictor of both distress and flourishing but especially of flourishing. Finally, the study concludes with brief recommendations for research, policy, and intervention.