Asociación entre orientación sexual y autoestima en estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

Introduction: The sexual orientation keeps statistically significant association with the self-esteem. Nevertheless, there are not studies in population of university students from Santa Marta, Colombia. Objective: To establish the association between sexual orientation and self-esteem in students of a university. Methods: Cross sectional study with voluntary participation of university students older than 18 years of age was designed. The participants completed an anonymous questionnaire about sexual orientation which contained the Rosenberg self-esteem scale. By means of logistic regression, the association according to gender was estimated and adjusted. Results: 1.349 students of different academic programs participated. The average age was 20.6 years (SD=3.4) and 50,7% were men. 3.4% informed to be lesbian, homosexual or bisexual (LGB) and 15.7% manifested low self-esteem (less or equal to 29 in the score; Cronbach’s alpha). The LGB students presented major frequency of low self-esteem in comparison with heterosexual students, adjusted by gender (OR=5.94; CI95%: 3.26-10.81; p<0,001). Conclusions: Low self-esteem is significantly more frequent in LGB university students than in heterosexuals in a University from Santa Marta, Colombia. It is possible that this deterioration in the self-esteem of non-heterosexual people is related with the stigma, prejudice and the discrimination. Rev.cienc.biomed. 2013;4(2):270-274

Keywords

• Sexual orientation; Self-esteem; College students; Adolescents.