Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms and Suicidality Among Heterosexual and Sexual Minority Youth

Abstract

Sexual minority youth report higher rates of depression and suicidality than do heterosexual youth. Little is known, however, about whether these disparities continue as youth transition into young adulthood. The primary goals of this study were to describe and compare trajectories of adolescent depressive symptoms and suicidality among sexual minority and heterosexual youth, examine differences in depressive symptoms and suicidality trajectories across sexual orientation subgroups, and determine whether there are gender differences in these longitudinal disparities. Four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were analyzed using latent curve modeling (N = 12,379; 53% female). Results showed that the rates of depressive symptoms and suicidality in early adolescence were higher among sexual minority youth than among heterosexual youth, and that these disparities persisted over time as participants transitioned into young adulthood. Consistent with previous cross-sectional studies, the observed longitudinal disparities were largest for females and for bisexually-identified youth. Sexual minority youth may benefit from childhood and early adolescent prevention and intervention programs.

Epidemiology of Suicide Attempts among Youth Transitioning to Adulthood

“…Some studies have examined the longitudinal trajectory of suicide risk during emerging adulthood, but these studies typically have assessed change for the sample as a whole and have not investigated differential change among subgroups (Marshal et al 2013;Needham 2012). An exception to this was a study of 552 adolescents whose suicide ideation was assessed at ages 14, 15, and 17.…”

Sexual Orientation and Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents

“…9 -11 Using 4 waves of National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data covering a 13-year period (from wave 1 in 1994-1995 to wave 4 in 2007-2009), trajectory analyses revealed that sexual orientation disparities in depressive symptoms were present as early as adolescence (grades [7][8][9][10][11][12] and persisted into early adulthood (ages 24-32 years), 10 and these disparities were more pronounced among female participants. 11 Trajectory studies using more recent samples revealed conflicting evidence. In a Chicago sample of sexual minority adolescents aged 16 to 20 years, depressive symptoms were found to decrease over a 3.5-year period.…”

Communicatie met ouders en vrienden als buffer tegen symptomen van angst en depressie voor same-sex attracted jongeren

“…Bos et al, 2008;King et al, 2008;Kuyper, 2015;Marshal et al, 2013;Sandfort et al, 2001Sandfort et al, , 2010. Uit een recente studie onder jongeren in Nederland (11-16 jaar) bleek bijvoorbeeld dat lesbische, homoseksuele, en biseksuele (LHB) jongeren (ruim) twee keer zo vaak emotionele problemen en gedragsproblemen en drie keer zo vaak problemen met leeftijdgenoten rapporteren dan hun heteroseksuele leeftijdgenoten (Kuyper, 2015).…”

“…King et al, 2008;Kuyper, 2015;Marshal et al, 2013) en wordt mogelijk verklaard door de negatieve ervaringen van discriminatie en stigma die SSAjongeren opdoen, welke stressvolle gevoelens uitlokken en uiteindelijk kunnen leiden tot symptomen van angst en depressie (o.a. Meyer, 2003;Kuyper & Fokkema, 2011).…”

“…Ondanks dat eerder onderzoek laat zien dat seksuele oriëntatie de ontwikkeling van welzijn voorspelt (o.a. Meyer, 2003;King et al, 2008;Marshal et al, 2013), is er in de huidige studie sprake van slechts één tijdsopname, en zou een longitudinale studie moeten onthullen of communicatie over tijd de ontwikkeling van depressieve en angstige symptomen buffert.…”