Parenthood and the physical and mental health of sexual and gender minority parents: A cross-sectional, observational analysis from The PRIDE Study

Purpose

To compare the physical and mental health of sexual and gender minority (SGM) parents to SGM non-parents.

Methods

A cross-sectional analysis using 2018–2020 data from The PRIDE Study, a national longitudinal cohort of SGM adults. We used Poisson regression adjusted for age, gender, relationship status, race/ethnicity, household income, and education to assess the association between parental status and each outcome.

Results

Among 9625 SGM participants, 1460 (15 %) were parents. Older participants were more likely to be parents: 2% of participants aged 18–30, 18% aged 30–39, and 38% aged 40+ were parents. In adjusted analyses, parenthood was associated with greater depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress symptoms as well as ever cigarette smoking. Among individuals assigned female sex at birth, parents were twice as likely to have been diagnosed with pelvic inflammatory disease compared to non-parents. There was no association between parenthood status and alcohol use, substance use, diabetes, HIV, hypertension, or autism.

Conclusions

In this national cohort of SGM adults, parenthood was associated with differences in physical and mental health measures. Understanding how parenthood influences the health and well-being of the estimated 3 million SGM parents in the US will help our health systems support diverse families.