Adulting While Queer and Female: Mental Health Disparities Among Young Filipino Women
Article information
Cleofas, J. V., & Abesamis, L. E. A. (2024). Sexual orientation disparities in adulting: Emerging adulthood markers, depression and anxiety among Filipino heterosexual and sexual minority women. Sexuality & Culture, 20, 2844-2859. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-024-10259-3
What this study is about
Emerging adulthood is the period from about 18 to 29 years old. It is often called the “in-between” stage: no longer adolescence, but not yet fully settled into adult roles. People in this life stage are expected to study, work, build relationships, become independent, explore identity, and imagine a future. In everyday language, this is often called adulting.
But adulting is not the same for everyone.
This study asks: Do heterosexual and sexual minority Filipino women experience emerging adulthood and mental health differently?
The focus is on young Filipino female undergraduate students. The researchers compared heterosexual women with sexual minority women, including bisexual, queer, asexual, pansexual, and lesbian respondents. The study examined four markers of emerging adulthood:
- Experimentation — seeing life as full of possibilities and opportunities.
- Negativity/instability — feeling pressure, stress, and uncertainty.
- Identity exploration — defining one’s values, beliefs, and sense of self.
- Feeling in-between — feeling partly adult, but not fully adult yet.
The study also examined two mental health outcomes: depression and anxiety.
Why this matters
Many studies talk about young people’s mental health. Fewer studies ask how gender and sexuality shape the experience of becoming an adult. This is important because young women already face gendered expectations: to succeed in school, prepare for work, maintain relationships, remain respectable, help family, and sometimes prepare for marriage or caregiving roles.
For sexual minority women, these pressures can become heavier. They may also face heterosexism, fear of rejection, family silence, discrimination, lack of LGBTQ+-responsive mental health services, and limited recognition in sexual and reproductive health policies. In the Philippine context, the paper notes that social institutions often remain shaped by heteropatriarchal expectations, even when there are laws and policies meant to protect women.
So the issue is not only that some young women are “more stressed.” The deeper issue is that the path to adulthood is shaped by unequal social conditions.
What the researchers did
This was a cross-sectional online survey conducted in the third quarter of 2022. The study included 768 female undergraduate students aged 18–29 enrolled in higher education institutions in the National Capital Region of the Philippines.
The sample included:
- 524 heterosexual women
- 244 sexual minority women
Among the sexual minority group, the largest groups were bisexual and queer respondents, followed by asexual, pansexual, and lesbian respondents.
The researchers measured emerging adulthood markers using the Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood / IDEA-8. They measured depression and anxiety using the depression and anxiety domains of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale / K10.
What the study found
1) Both groups showed clinical risk for depression and anxiety
One of the most important findings is that both heterosexual and sexual minority women had mean scores indicating clinical risk for possible depression and anxiety. This means the mental health burden was not limited to one group. Young women in general were experiencing serious distress during the period studied.
This is important because the data were collected in 2022, during the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even as restrictions were easing, many young women were still carrying emotional and developmental burdens.
2) Sexual minority women reported higher depression and anxiety
Although both groups showed mental health risk, sexual minority women reported significantly higher depression and anxiety than heterosexual women.
This finding supports what many LGBTQ+ mental health scholars have long argued: mental health disparities do not come from sexuality itself. They come from the social conditions surrounding sexuality—stigma, rejection, invisibility, fear, discrimination, and lack of affirming services.
In plain language: queer young women are not inherently more distressed. They are often made more vulnerable by the world they have to navigate.
3) Sexual minority women experienced more negativity and instability in adulting
Among the four emerging adulthood markers, the only one that significantly differed between groups was negativity/instability. Sexual minority women scored higher than heterosexual women.
This means sexual minority women experienced adulting as more stressful, pressured, and unstable.
This finding matters because emerging adulthood is often described as a time of possibility. But possibility is not equally available. For some queer women, adulting may involve extra questions: Can I disclose my sexuality? Will my family accept me? Can I have a future relationship that is recognized? Will I be safe in school, work, healthcare, and family spaces? Will mental health services understand me?
4) Low experimentation predicted depression in both groups
For both heterosexual and sexual minority women, lower experimentation predicted higher depression.
This means that young women who saw fewer possibilities, opportunities, or hopeful pathways in life tended to report more depressive symptoms.
This is a strong developmental insight. Depression may be linked not only to sadness, but also to a narrowed sense of future. When young people feel that adulthood offers fewer possibilities, mental health can suffer.
5) Negativity and instability predicted depression in both groups
Higher negativity/instability predicted higher depression among both heterosexual and sexual minority women.
This is expected but important. When adulting feels unstable, pressured, and stressful, depression becomes more likely. School demands, future uncertainty, family expectations, relationship concerns, and pandemic disruptions can all intensify this feeling.
6) Anxiety worked differently across groups
For heterosexual women, anxiety was predicted by higher negativity/instability. In simple terms, the more pressured and unstable adulting felt, the higher their anxiety.
For sexual minority women, anxiety was predicted by three factors: being non-Catholic, lower experimentation, and higher negativity/instability. The religion finding should be interpreted carefully. The authors suggest that in the Philippines, Catholic institutions and spiritual resources may sometimes provide accessible mental health support. But this does not mean religious spaces are automatically affirming for queer women. Rather, it points to the complex role of religion, support, stigma, and help-seeking in Filipino mental health.
7) Sexual orientation shapes the experience of adulting
The study’s overall message is that sexual orientation is a meaningful gradient in young women’s development and mental health. Heterosexual and sexual minority women may both struggle during emerging adulthood, but the pattern and intensity of struggle differ.
The study therefore supports a queer reading of emerging adulthood. Adulting should not be studied as if everyone follows the same path. For sexual minority women, adulthood may involve navigating family silence, restricted sexual expression, anticipated stigma, limited policy recognition, and unequal access to affirming care.
Bottom line
This study shows that young Filipino women’s mental health during emerging adulthood is shaped by sexuality. Sexual minority women reported higher instability, depression, and anxiety than heterosexual women. At the same time, the study shows that adulting pressures affect both groups, especially when life feels unstable and when opportunities for experimentation and possibility feel limited.
The key message is clear: mental health programs for young women must be both gender-sensitive and LGBTQ+-affirming.
Policy/practice recommendations
- Make campus mental health services LGBTQ+-affirming
Counselors, nurses, psychologists, and student affairs staff should be trained to understand sexual minority women’s experiences, including concealment, family rejection, heterosexism, and minority stress. - Address adulting stress directly
Programs for emerging adults should discuss uncertainty, identity exploration, career pressure, relationships, sexuality, family expectations, and future planning. - Create safe spaces for queer Filipinas
Universities can support peer groups, mentoring spaces, gender offices, and confidential referral systems for sexual minority women. - Expand mental health services beyond crisis response
Since both groups showed clinical risk for depression and anxiety, universities should offer regular screening, early intervention, psychoeducation, and accessible counseling. - Promote possibilities, not only coping
Because low experimentation was linked to depression, mental health promotion should help students imagine futures, build confidence, explore identity safely, and access opportunities. - Protect LGBTQ+ students from discrimination
Schools and local governments should strengthen anti-discrimination policies and ensure that public health and mental health services are safe for LGBTQ+ people. - Include sexual minority women in policy and program design
Programs should not only speak about queer women. They should involve queer women in designing services that respond to their actual needs.
Glossary of key terms
- Emerging adulthood — The life stage from roughly 18 to 29 years old, marked by identity exploration, instability, independence-building, and future planning.
- Adulting — A common term for learning and performing adult roles, such as studying, working, managing responsibilities, forming relationships, and becoming independent.
- Sexual minority women — Women whose sexual orientation is not heterosexual, including lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual, pansexual, and other non-heterosexual identities.
- Heterosexual women — Women who are sexually or romantically attracted to men.
- Emerging adulthood markers — Psychological features that describe this life stage, such as experimentation, instability, identity exploration, and feeling in-between.
- Experimentation — Seeing one’s current life stage as a time of possibilities, opportunities, exploration, and future options.
- Negativity/instability — Experiencing emerging adulthood as stressful, pressured, uncertain, or unstable.
- Identity exploration — Defining one’s values, beliefs, identity, worldview, relationships, and life direction.
- Feeling in-between — Feeling partly adult but not fully adult yet.
- Depression — A mental health condition or symptom pattern involving sadness, hopelessness, low energy, worthlessness, or loss of interest.
- Anxiety — A mental health condition or symptom pattern involving nervousness, worry, fear, restlessness, or physiological tension.
- Psychological distress — Emotional suffering that may include symptoms of depression, anxiety, or related mental health difficulties.
- IDEA-8 — Inventory of the Dimensions of Emerging Adulthood, an eight-item scale used to measure emerging adulthood markers.
- K10 — Kessler Psychological Distress Scale, used here to measure depression and anxiety symptoms.
- Heterosexism — Social beliefs, practices, and institutions that privilege heterosexuality and marginalize non-heterosexual people.
- Heteropatriarchy — A social system where heterosexuality and male dominance are treated as normal, superior, or more legitimate.
- Minority stress — Stress experienced by marginalized groups because of stigma, discrimination, concealment, and social exclusion.
- Gender-sensitive mental health care — Mental health care that recognizes how gender roles, inequalities, and expectations shape distress and well-being.
- LGBTQ+-affirming mental health care — Care that respects and supports LGBTQ+ identities, relationships, experiences, and needs without judgment or pathologizing.
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