TY - JOUR
T1 - Kink-Oriented People and Exogenous Oppressions
T2 - Understanding Mental Health and Related Service Use in a Rural Context
AU - Reynish, Tamara D.
AU - Hoang, Ha
AU - Bridgman, Heather
AU - Easpaig, Bróna Nic Giolla
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by aTasmania Graduate Research Scholarship
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Rural, kink-oriented people experience much exogenous oppression and yet related research is scarce. This study examined the risk and protective factors of kink-oriented rural Tasmanian Australians with preexisting mental health conditions and help-seeking barriers and facilitators. Participants completed either an online survey (n = 42), an interview (n = 10), or both. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data, respectively. Participants aged 18 to 61 were gender and sexually diverse and better educated but had more lifetime suicide attempts than the general public. Despite the increasing normalization of kink, 90.5% of participants have never seen a kink-aware mental health professional (MHP) and nearly 83.0% did not disclose to an MHP for fear of stigma or discrimination. Self-awareness, resilience, social support and kink improved participants’ mental health. Tailored support from trained MHP is vital to improve the mental health of kink-oriented people in rural areas.
AB - Rural, kink-oriented people experience much exogenous oppression and yet related research is scarce. This study examined the risk and protective factors of kink-oriented rural Tasmanian Australians with preexisting mental health conditions and help-seeking barriers and facilitators. Participants completed either an online survey (n = 42), an interview (n = 10), or both. Thematic analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data, respectively. Participants aged 18 to 61 were gender and sexually diverse and better educated but had more lifetime suicide attempts than the general public. Despite the increasing normalization of kink, 90.5% of participants have never seen a kink-aware mental health professional (MHP) and nearly 83.0% did not disclose to an MHP for fear of stigma or discrimination. Self-awareness, resilience, social support and kink improved participants’ mental health. Tailored support from trained MHP is vital to improve the mental health of kink-oriented people in rural areas.
KW - Australia
KW - BDSM
KW - kink
KW - Mental health
KW - mental health services
KW - rural
KW - service barriers
KW - Tasmania
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85124328119&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00918369.2022.2036531
DO - 10.1080/00918369.2022.2036531
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85124328119
SN - 0091-8369
VL - 70
SP - 1479
EP - 1502
JO - Journal of Homosexuality
JF - Journal of Homosexuality
IS - 8
ER -
