The relationship between rainbow role models and wellbeing in the Aotearoa/New Zealand rainbow community
Project Title: The Relationship Between Rainbow Role Models and Wellbeing in the Aotearoa/New Zealand Rainbow Community
Lead Researcher: Grey Woods
The rainbow community faces significant mental health disparities, including alarming rates of suicide. Role models may offer a valuable mechanism to improve wellbeing in the rainbow community, a concept well-established in the general population but underexplored within rainbow populations. This study examined whether having rainbow role models is associated with greater wellbeing in the rainbow community. Additionally, it examined whether shared rainbow identity characteristics are more important than non-rainbow identity characteristics to rainbow people when seeking role models. A sample of 168 rainbow participants aged 16 and above in Aotearoa/New Zealand completed an online survey about their role models and wellbeing. Analyses of variance, t-tests and Friedman tests were used to test hypotheses. The results indicated that rainbow people place high importance on sharing a connection to the rainbow community with their role models, significantly higher than sharing the measured non-rainbow characteristics. Yet, the presence and increased accessibility of participants’ rainbow role models were not associated with greater wellbeing. Small effects indicated that the presence of rainbow role models may be associated with lower wellbeing, moreso for those who can only identify rainbow role models in the public sphere. These findings highlight the complexity of role model mechanisms within the rainbow community, underscoring the need for further research. Future studies should investigate how rainbow people identify role models, which types of role models are more impactful, and how these factors relate to rainbow wellbeing. Such research could inform initiatives to support rainbow wellbeing and address the prevalent mental health challenges within this community.
