Introduction
There are many issues that surround the LGBT population in the modern society, and one of them is the increasing rate of suicide among members of the population especially among LGBT youth. Despite the fact that society nowadays is shown to be tolerant of the LGBT population, there are still factors that are related to social stigma against LGBT members such as homophobia and the like. In addition, psychological factors such as depression can also play in the role in increasing the risk of suicide among LGBT youth.
Since suicide among youth in general is a serious issue in our society, it is therefore important to determine what factors contribute to the increasing rates of suicide in LGBT youth in recent years. Once these factors are known, they can be controlled or eliminated so as to reduce the rate of suicide among LGBT youth. In addition, learning these factors can be a key in understanding the LGBT community in general which can lead into understanding and tolerance of their culture.
Studies about Suicide and LGBT Youth
Many studies have been conducted in order to determine what factors are important in determining the rate of suicide among LGBT youth. One of these researches was conducted by D’Aguelli et al in 2005. In this study, the researchers aimed to determine the significant predictors in LGBT youth suicide. In order to do this, they divided a sample of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth into three groups. One group is consisted of the ones who have never attempted suicide, a second one is made up of the youth attempted suicide but due to reasons unrelated to sexuality, and the members third one tried to commit suicide due to problems brought about by their sexuality.
Before conducting the study, the researchers looked up past studies that are related to their topic. They noted that studies have been done that aim to explore the causes that bring about LGBT-related suicide attempts. Some of these factors include awareness of the attraction to the same sex, as well as psychological and mental problems such as lack of self-esteem.
In order to obtain more clarified and significant results regarding this topic, the researchers classified their sample into three groups as described above. Doing so would differentiate the suicide reasons among these groups. Furthermore, they only classified suicide attempts to ones that have more serious consequences, not ones that are merely fantasized or acted out. They selected a sample of 528 participants and noted their ethnicities and socioeconomic statuses. The participants were then interviewed about questions such as sexual orientation, level of “outness”, gender atypicality, experience with victimization, and suicide attempts. These questions were given a scale and the respondents were to answer based on a rating system.
After the data was collected, discriminant factor analysis was used to determine which predictors are significant in determining suicide. It was found out that the people who attempted suicide had experienced psychological and verbal abuse and was discouraged by their parents from atypical gender behavior more often than non-attempters. Moreover, those who attempted suicide due to LGBT-related issues are more open about their sexuality than those who attempted suicide for other reasons.
The significant factors in the study may be explained by the psychological state by the LGBT members during the time of suicide. In youth, the guidance of parents and friends is important for an individual to grow up healthy. If the youth do not receive approval and tolerance from their parents, they are more likely to feel isolated and depressed, leading to suicidal thoughts and in some cases, actual attempts. However, it should be noted that the research also used a convenience sample and may not necessarily reflect the factors that affect LGBT members in general. In addition, the use of a scaling system leads to lack of veracity as the answers were self-reported and thus cannot be measured objective. This kind of data-gathering can lead to a lot of measurement errors as well. They also lack information regarding transgender individuals—the research focuses mainly on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth only.
Another study exploring the factors that correlate to the suicide among LGBT youth was conducted by Mustanski and Liu in 2012. As with the former research, they searched for related studies beforehand and found out that the LGBT community has a high case of suicide attempts. However, they found gaps in the researches and so their study was conducted in order to fill those gaps. First, majority of the studies are cross-sectional, i.e., conducted at a specific period of time, when a longitudinal (conducted over a long period of time) would be more comprehensive. Secondly, many of these studies focus on the suicide aspect more and not much attention is given to the LGBT part of the issue. Thirdly, many factors are about factors relating to LGBT rather than the whole population in general.
After analysis, it was found out that hopelessness and impulsivity are positively correlated with suicide in general. Among the LGBT-related factors, LGBT victimization and younger age of same-sex attraction were found to be positively correlated with suicide, while support from family was associated negatively with it. However, these factors which are significant in bivariate models were no longer significant in the multivariate model except for depression and hopelessness. Furthermore, the significant factor in the follow-up logistic regression model was history of past suicide attempts.
Compared to D’Augelli et al’s research, this one also seeks out to identify which factors are critical in determining the rate of suicide among LGBT youth by means of a statistical analysis. However, while the former uses determinant factor analysis, this one used logistic regression analysis. This study also aims to measure the rate of suicide in the long term, rather than for a specific period of time. These results about psychological and social factors being a cause of suicide attempts are consisted with the previous study conducted by D’Aguelli et al. However, in contrast to their results, this study shows that other factors related to LGBT are not significant predictors, at least in the multivariate case. As with D’Aguelli et al’s study, the sample was taken purposively, meaning that these findings may not hold true for the general population. Nonetheless, these two studies show that psychosocial factors are critical in suicide rates among LGBT individuals.
The psychosocial factors associated with suicide were further explored in Rutter and Soucar’s study in 2002. Their study involves risk assessment for suicide rather than finding predictors like in the previous two studies. Like in the studies outlined above, they found flaws regarding previous studies made about the topic. They noted that various use of instruments to measure suicide, as well as the definition of LGBT and suicide attempts, have led to conflicting results and predictors regarding the topic.
Like with the other studies, they used a convenience sample to pick out participants, and their demographics were noted. These participants were then asked to answer certain standardized questionnaires in order to draw data between the relationship between suicide and sexual orientation. After collecting the data, multivariate analysis was performed. The results show that sexual orientation is not significantly correlated with suicide attempts, and bisexual and questioning youth are no more likely to perform suicide compared with their peers. However, it shows that LGBT members who receive support from their family and friends contribute to a negative correlation with suicide attempts.
These conclusions show that psychosocial factors are really crucial in determining suicide attempts. Depression and feelings of isolation contribute greatly in suicide among LGBT members, while support decreases the risk itself. However, this study also explored the positive effects of support in decreasing the rate of suicide among LGBT members, rather than focusing on its negative aspects which is a significant factor in suicide, as shown by the previous two researches.
Conclusion
Suicide among the youth is a major sociological problem nowadays, especially among LGBT members. In order to explore the factors that contribute to suicide among LGBT members, various studies have been conducted about this topic. A research by D’Aguelli et al shows that experience with victimization and bullying, along with a lack of support, are significant predictors in the suicide rates among LGBT youth. These findings were supported by Mustanski’s and Liu’s study, which showed that depression and hopelessness are significant factors in LGBT suicide, with past attempts of suicide a major predictor over a 12-month period. Rutter’s and Soucar’s research shows that support from family and peers are important factors for decreasing suicide rate among LGBT students.
These three researches show that psychological and sociological factors, such as depression, bullying, social stigma, and lack of support among the community contribute greatly to LGBT suicide rates. Other factors such as demographics, gender, and sexual orientation have little significance in the major picture. More research should be conducted on this topic in order to determine to what extent these psychosocial factors affect suicide rates among LGBT youth.
References
D'Aguelli, A. R., Groddman, A. H., Salter, N. P., Vasey, J. J., Starks, M. T., & Sinclair, K. O. (2005). Predicting the suicide attempts of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 35(6), 646-660.
Mustanski, B., & Liu, R. T. (2013). A longitudinal study of predictors of suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Archive of Sexual Behavior, 432, 437-448.
Rutter, P. A., & Soucar, E. (2002). Youth suicide risk and sexual orientation. Adolescence, 37(146).
