The experience of minority stress is often named as a cause for mental health disparities among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth, including higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation. The processes or mechanisms through which these disparities occur are understudied. The interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide posits two key mechanisms for suicidal ideation: perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness (Joiner, 2009). The aim of the current study is to assess the mental health and adjustment among LGB youth emphasizing the minority stress model (Meyer, 2003) and the interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide (Joiner et al., 2009). With a survey of 876 LGB self-identified youth, levels of coming-out stress, sexual orientation victimization, perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, depression, and suicidal ideation were examined. The results of a multigroup mediation model show that for all gender and sexual identity groups, the association of sexual orientation victimization with depression and suicidal ideation was mediated by perceived burdensomeness. For gay, lesbian, and bisexual girls coming-out stress was also found to be related to depression and suicidal ideation, mediated by perceived burdensomeness. The results suggest that feeling like a burden to “people in their lives” is a critical mechanism in explaining higher levels of depression and suicidal ideation among LGB youth. These results have implications for community and social support groups, many of which base their interventions on decreasing social isolation rather than addressing youths' beliefs of burdensomeness. Implications for future research, clinical and community settings are discussed.
Dutch sexual minority youth and young adults (106 females and 86 males, 16-24 years old) were assessed to establish whether there was a relation between gender nonconformity and psychological well-being and whether this relation was mediated by perceived experiences of stigmatization due to perceived or actual sexual orientation and moderated by biological sex. The participants were recruited via announcements on Dutch LGBTQ-oriented community websites and then linked to a protected online questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to measure gender nonconformity, perceived experiences of stigmatization, and psychological well-being. Gender nonconformity was found to predict lower levels of psychological well-being and the mediation analysis confirmed that lower levels of psychological well-being were related to the perceived experiences of stigmatization. This mediation was not moderated by biological sex. These findings show that both research and interventions should pay more attention to gender nonconformity among young people in order to create a more positive climate for young sexual minority members.
OBJECTIVES:To identify patterns of childhood adversity in a sample of adolescents and assess disparities in these experiences for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning adolescents and by level of gender nonconformity.METHOD By using the cross-sectional, statewide, anonymous 2016 Minnesota Student Survey, 81 885 students were included in the current study (50.59% male; mean age = 15.51). Participants were enrolled in grades 9 and 11 in a total of 348 schools.
RESULTS:Four patterns of childhood adversity were identified with sex-stratified latent class analyses (entropy = 0.833 males; 0.833 females), ranging from relatively low levels of abuse (85.3% males; 80.1% females) to polyvictimization (0.84% males; 1.98% females). A regression analysis showed that compared with heterosexual adolescents, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning adolescents were more likely to be classified into profiles characterized by polyvictimization (odds ratio [OR] 1.81-7.53) and psychological and/ or physical abuse (OR 1.29-3.12), than no or low adversity. Similarly, compared with nontransgender adolescents, transgender adolescents were more likely to be classified into profiles characterized by patterns of polyvictimization (OR 1.49-2.91) and psychological and/or physical abuse (OR 1.23-1.96). A higher level of gender nonconformity predicted a higher likelihood of being classified into each adversity profile compared with the no or low adversity profile (OR 1.14-1.45).
CONCLUSIONS:Sexual minority adolescents and adolescents with high levels of gender nonconformity are vulnerable to experience adversity. The disparities for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning adolescents and adolescents with high gender nonconformity highlight the variation in patterns of childhood adversity that these youth are at risk of experiencing. The findings reveal the need for further research on the benefits and harm of screening for childhood adversity by physicians and pediatricians.abstract Pedagogy and Educational Sciences,
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