Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Youth Suicide Victims: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

In our sample, same-sex sexual orientation and gender identity issues do not appear to be more prevalent among youth who die by suicide, compared with youth recruited from the general population, nor for same-sex sexual-related intimidation. While exhibiting comparable levels of general psychopathological diagnoses associated with suicide, suicide victims with same-sex sexual orientation were more likely to meet criteria for anxiety disorders and to have consulted mental health professionals before their deaths.

Suicide and Suicide Risk in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Populations: Review and Recommendations

“…Some researchers have attempted to determine whether these groups are overrepresented among those who die by suicide, using “psychological autopsy” reports of family and friends to determine the decedents’ sexual orientation. Several studies using this method have been published, focusing on young adult male suicides in San Diego (Rich, Fowler, Young, & Blenkush, 1986) and adolescent suicides in the New York metropolitan area (Shaffer, Fisher, Hicks, Parides, & Gould, 1995) and the province of Quebec (Renaud, Berlim, Begolli, McGirr, & Turecki, 2010). Each of these studies has concluded that same-sex sexual orientation is not disproportionately represented among suicide victims.…”

Suicide Risk among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Military Personnel and Veterans: What Does the Literature Tell Us?

“…Nevertheless, there is no consistent and reliable way to determine the prevalence of suicide among this population because death records do not routinely record sexual orientation (Haas et al., ). Psychological autopsy has been used to capture death by suicide and sexual orientation, but increased death rates among LGBT populations were not found in these studies (McDaniel, Purcell, & D'Augelli, ; Renaud, Berlim, Begolli, McGirr, & Turecki, ; Shaffer, Fisher, Hicks, Parides, & Gould, ). The results should be regarded as tentative due to small sample sizes and underreporting by those interviewed.…”

Complementing remarks to Skerrettet al. (2014) “suicides among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender populations in Australia: An analysis of the Queensland Suicide Register”

“…First, Skerrett et al (2014) cites the psychological autopsy study of Shaffer et al (1995). This study and a replication (Renaud et al, 2010) are of major importance, as they use a living control group and thus control for the underreporting bias. There were no…”

“…Second, both autopsy studies (Shaffer et al, 1995;Renaud et al, 2010) have erroneously been used as evidence that LGBT individuals are not overrepresented among suicide victims . Skerret et al took up this false interpretation.…”