Kontakt X:X | DOI: 10.32725/kont.2026.055

Feelings of difference, social support, and well-being among LGBT+ youthSocial Sciences in Health - Original article

Anna Karmazínová ORCID...^{1, 2, *}, Markéta Švamberk Šauerová ORCID...¹, Michal Pitoňák ORCID...^{1, 3}, Irena Smetáčková ORCID...¹, Kateřina Machovcová ORCID...¹, Petr Pavlík^{1, 3}, Jack D. Simons ORCID...^{1, 4}

¹ Charles University, Faculty of Education, Prague, Czech Republic

² Comenius University, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Institute of Applied Psychology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

³ Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

⁴ Mercy University, Social and Behavioral Sciences, New York, USA

This study examines the relationships between adolescents' feelings of difference, social support, and subjective well-being, with a particular focus on pupils who report their feelings of difference as being related to sexual orientation identity. The aim of the study was to analyze the associations between the subjective experience of feelings of difference in the school environment, the availability of social support from various sources, and adolescents' psychological well-being. The research sample consisted of 704 pupils from grades 7-9 of lower secondary schools and grades 1-2 of upper secondary schools from different regions of the Czech Republic. Data were collected through an anonymous questionnaire administered in classrooms. Well-being was measured using the YP-CORE scale, while social support was assessed by the MSPSS scale, with additional items on the school environment. The results indicated that feelings of difference were significantly negatively associated with subjective well-being, and pupils who reported a feeling of difference experienced substantially lower levels of peer social support. In contrast, no statistically significant differences were found in relation to overall social support. Pupils with feelings of difference related to LGBT+ identity reported the lowest levels of subjective well-being and lower levels of social support (peers and parents). The findings highlight the importance of social support as a key protective factor in adolescence and underscore the need for inclusive school environments.

Keywords: Education; Feelings of difference; Inclusion; LGBT+; Pupils; Students; Social support; Well-being

Grants and funding:

The study was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), project No. 23-07934S.

Conflicts of interest:

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

Received: March 31, 2026; Revised: July 9, 2026; Accepted: September 10, 2026; Prepublished online: September 22, 2026