Behavioural addictions and compulsive behaviours based on sexual orientation: the role of gender

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Despite the amount of evidence relative to substance use based on sexual orientation, little is known about the relationship between sexual orientation and behavioural addictions or compulsive behaviours. This exploratory study aims to examine differences in gambling, gaming, Internet use, compulsive buying, and compulsive sexual behaviour based on sexual orientation and gender. A total of 1,704 undergraduate students (Mage = 21.99, SD = 4.76, 81.4% women) were included in the study, where 72.8% (n = 1,240) self-identified referred as heterosexuals, 17.9% as bisexuals (n = 305), and the remaining 9.3% (n = 159) as gays/lesbians. Results indicated that heterosexual men showed greater gambling-related harms than gay men (ω2=.033), whereas bisexual women presented higher compulsive sexual behaviour than heterosexuals (ω2 = .008). There were also gender differences based on sexual orientation; specifically, bisexual men showed more gaming than bisexual women (r = .129). No gender differences were found among gay/lesbian people. Finally, behavioural addictions or compulsive behaviours were significantly associated with anxiety (r between .066 and .388) and depressive symptoms (r between .077 and .323). This study emphasises the need to consider the sexual minority perspective in behavioural addiction research and clinical settings, with a focus on gender differences.