Research on youth suicide and sexual orientation is impacted by high rates of missingness in national surveillance systems

Objective: The sexual orientation of youth who die by suicide in the United States is usually unknown. This study assessed how observed patterns of unknown sexual orientation are likely to affect research findings. Methods: We analyzed the National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) Restricted Access Dataset to assess whether sexual orientation among youth suicide decedents is disproportionately […]

Inclusive state legislation and reduced risk of past-year suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning adolescents in the United States

Objective This study examines the relationship between state legislation relevant to equality for sexual minorities and past-year suicide attempts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) adolescents in the United States. Methods Data were aggregated from 24 states that participated in the 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (N = 70,599). We utilized multilevel logistic regression to […]

Integrating minority stress theory and the interpersonal theory of suicide among sexual minority youth who engage crisis services

Objective The present study sought to integrate minority stress theory (MST) and the interpersonal theory of suicide (ITS) to better understand high rates of suicide among sexual minority youth (SMY). To date, the ITS and MST have largely advanced independently from one another even though the research base for each theory contains gaps that the […]

A longitudinal study examining the associations of bullying victimization and suicidal ideation among sexual minority adolescents

Introduction Roughly one-third of sexual minority adolescents (SMA) report at least one lifetime suicide attempt. Supportive connections are protective for ideation, yet little is known about this association with SMA—especially longitudinally. Methods Five-step logistic regressions examined the associations of bullying, SMA, and ideation, and also how connectedness mediates this from age 9 and 15 (Fragile […]

Sexual identity development: Relationship with lifetime suicidal ideation in sexual minority women

Aims and objectives—This study draws on a life course perspective to evaluate, in a sample of sexual minority women: (1) the relationship between age at reaching sexual identity milestones and risk of  suicidal ideation, (2) developmental stages or stages of sexual identity development that represent greatest risk, and (3) the relationship between age of reaching […]