The Association Between Campus Climate and the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ College Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Exploring the relationship between campus climate and the mental health of LGBTQ+ college students is essential, given their unique contextual vulnerabilities. This systematic review and meta-analysis aim to explore comprehensively the campus climate and to synthesize the varied findings from existing literature, focusing on both significant and non-significant correlations between campus climate and mental health. A thorough literature search was conducted in the PubMed and Web of Science databases until November 15, 2022, adhering to the pre-registered protocol (PROSPERO CRD42023388504). Our comprehensive literature review includes 24 research articles, offering an insightful overview of the current literature and mapping out the varied definitions of campus climate employed in these studies. We identified four dimensions of campus climate: individual and interpersonal, community and educational, institutional and structural, and cultural and societal. The meta-analysis, incorporating data from eight studies with a total of 3035 LGBTQ+  college students (mean ages ranging from 20.54 to 24 years), reveals significant positive correlations between a discriminatory campus climate and elevated levels of stress (pooled r = 0.337; 95% CI 0.223–0.451) and anxiety (pooled r = 0.197; 95% CI 0.147–0.247). It also indicates a significant positive correlation between a discriminatory campus climate and depression (pooled r = 0.267; 95% CI 0.06–0.474). However, our analysis did not find a significant correlation between a perceived inclusivity climate and depression. This study advocates a more comprehensive investigation of the relationship between different dimensions of campus climate and the mental health of LGBTQ+  college students. It also highlights the urgent need for universities to strengthen inclusion and support mechanisms for these students.