Trends in suicidality among sexual minority and heterosexual students in a canadian population-based cohort study.

Abstract

Objectives-Despite evidence from numerous studies that document disparities in suicidality for sexual minorities, few have investigated whether or not these trends have improved over time, which is the objective of the current study.Methods-Using school-based population data over a 15-year period (1998 to 2013), multivariate logistic regressions were used to calculate age-adjusted odds ratios separately by gender. Interactions were included to test widening or narrowing disparities within orientation groups, which makes this one of the first studies to test whether gaps in disparities between heterosexual and sexual minorities have widened or narrowed over time. Results-Resultsshow that sexual minority youth are persistently at a greater risk for suicidal behaviour, a trend that has continued particularly for bisexual youth of both sexes. Results also suggest that the gap in suicidal behaviour is widening among some female sexual orientation groups, yet narrowing for other male sexual orientation groups.Conclusions-These findings have important public health implications, especially since we see decreases in suicidal behaviour for heterosexual adolescents, but not in the same way for many sexual minority youth, despite advances in social acceptance of gay, lesbian, and bisexual issues in North America. KeywordsSexual orientation; Suicidal behaviour; Heterosexual/Bisexual/Gay/Lesbian; Adolescents; Population Surveys; Health Disparities According to the World Health Organization (WHO), suicide is one of the leading causes of youth fatality (15-24 years of age) around the world (WHO, 2014). In Canada, approximately 500 youth (ages 10 to 24) have died by suicide every year from 2007 to 2011 (Statistics Canada, 2012 (Oquendo, Currier, & Mann, 2006;Troister, Links, & Cutcliffe, 2008). To this end, these suicidal behaviour measures are important indicators for research as it allows for the identification of sub-groups of youth, which aids in targeted prevention, intervention and post-intervention efforts. Review of the literatureResearch on sexual minority youth consistently shows that the prevalence of suicidal behaviour is higher than for their heterosexual peers. For instance, in a meta-analysis conducted by Marshal and colleagues (2011), sexual minority youth reported significantly higher rates of suicidality (OR=2.9) than heterosexual students. In a study that examined 9 population-based datasets of adolescent students from the U.S. and Canada, Saewyc and colleagues (2007) found that LGB youth were at a significantly higher risk of suicide ideation and attempt than heterosexual and mostly heterosexual students. More specifically, they found in most surveys that one-fourth to one-third of LGB adolescents reported suicide attempts, compared to one-tenth or less for their heterosexual peers. This overrepresentation of sexual minority youth in regards to suicidal behaviour has been observed elsewhere in the United States (Hatzenbuehler, 2011;Robinson, & Espelage, 2011) as well as internationally (Värnik et ...

Love and Dating Patterns for Same‐ and Both‐Gender Attracted Adolescents Across Europe

“…While same‐gender love had a similar prevalence across genders, more than twice as many girls reported love for both‐gender partners than boys. This is comparable with observations from other population‐based studies of adolescents (e.g., Goodenow, Watson, Adjei, Homma, & Saewyc, 2016; Peter et al., 2017) and longitudinal studies which suggest that women's attraction is more “fluid” and maybe more determined by situational factors than that of men (Umberson, Thomeer, Kroeger, Lodge, & Xu, 2015). …”

Estimating the Risk of Attempted Suicide Among Sexual Minority Youths

“…Thirty-five 1,7,12,18,[20][21][22][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] studies reported in 24 articles that involved a total of 2 378 987 heterosexual and 113 468 sexual minority adolescents (age range, 12-20 years) were included in the analysis (Figure 1). The studies were conducted in 10 countries (Iceland, United States, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, and Korea).…”

“…Sensitivity analysis, in which the meta-analysis was serially repeated after the exclusion of each study, showed that most studies affected the overall OR at an SD of 0.07 except for 3 studies: exclusion of the study by Lucassen et al 18 from the total sample revealed a decrease in OR to 3.31 (95% CI, 2.82-3.90), exclusion of National American Indian Adolescent Health Survey of 1990 from the study by Saewyc et al 42 revealed an increase in OR to 4.05 (95% CI, 3.58-4.59), and exclusion of the Minnesota Student Survey of 1992 in the study by Saewyc et al 42 revealed an increase in OR to 3.61 (95% CI, 3.10-4.22). Exclusion of the study by Peter et al 22…”

“…Despite the increasing evidence of a greater risk of attempted suicide among sexual minority adolescents, 12,[18][19][20][21][22] a systematic analysis of the extent of this phenomenon has not been performed to our knowledge. This study examined the risk of attempted suicide among sexual minority adolescents, differentiating for each sexual minority group, to identify preventive strategies.…”

Transgender im Jugendalter: Forschungsstand und zukünftiger Forschungsbedarf

“…Wohlbefinden aufweisen als cisgeschlechtliche oder Personen, die nicht trans sind. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass junge Menschen aus sexuellen Minoritäten, und damit auch Transgender-Kinder und -Jugendliche, trotz wachsender gesellschaftlicher Akzeptanz von Geschlechtsinkongruenz, Gendervarianz und Transgender einer besonderen Belastung und Risiken hinsichtlich ihrer psychischen Gesundheit ausgesetzt sind -und somit auch entsprechender Hilfsangebote bedürfen‚[44]. Beziehungen nicht "abpuffern", es gab also keine Interaktionseffekte zwischen den Risikofaktoren für die psychische Entwicklung.…”