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Health and happiness among homosexual couples in Europe

Part of: LGBTQ History Month Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Hanneke van den Akker ,
Joris Blaauw ,
Marcel Lubbers ,
Rozemarijn van der Ploeg ,
Peer Scheepers  and
Ellen Verbakel
Hanneke van den Akker
Affiliation:
Social and Cultural Science, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Joris Blaauw
Affiliation:
Unit for Behavioural Science, National Police of the Netherlands, Division East Netherlands (formerly research masters student, Department of Sociology, Social and Cultural Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University)
Marcel Lubbers
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Rozemarijn van der Ploeg
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Groningen, The Netherlands (formerly research masters student, Social and Cultural Science, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University)
Peer Scheepers
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, email P.Scheepers@maw.ru.nl
Ellen Verbakel
Affiliation:
Faculty of Social Sciences, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Data from five waves (2002–10) of the European Social Survey were examined to see the extent to which heterosexual and homosexual couples differ in their health and happiness. Homosexual people had lower levels of self-rated health and happiness. We suggest that those who experience discrimination are more strongly integrated in their gay community, which, in turn, may bring positive effects in terms of happiness due to a sense of belonging, but may be accompanied by the specific health risks associated with this community.

Type
Thematic Papers
Information
International Psychiatry , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 31 - 33
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits noncommercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 2013

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