Associations between early child adversity and lifetime suicide attempts among gender diverse individuals: A moderated mediation

Background This study examines the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on lifetime suicide attempts (LSA) across five gender subgroups (i.e., transgender men, transgender women, transgender non-binary, cisgender men and cisgender women). Objective To examine (1) the prevalence of LSA across gender identity subgroups; (2) whether the association between ACEs and LSA is moderated by gender identity subgroup; (3) depressive symptoms, alcohol use disorder, social support, and social well-being as mechanisms linking ACEs with LSA; and (4) the moderating role of gender identity on the four putative mediators. Participants and settings We used nationally representative data from a population-based survey of N = 1368 transgender and cisgender individuals collected between 2016 and 2019. Methods Structural equation modeling was used to explore the indirect effect of depressive symptoms on the relation between ACEs and LSA, and the moderating impact of gender identity. Results LSA was significantly more prevalent among transgender respondents (cisgender man = 5 %; cisgender woman = 9 %; transgender man = 42 %; transgender woman = 33 %; transgender non-binary = 37 %; p < 0.001). Individuals with more ACEs had a greater risk of engaging in LSA regardless of gender identity; however, moderation results showed that the impact of each additional ACE on LSA was stronger for individuals with transgender identities: the likelihood of engaging in LSA was statistically similar for transgender men with no ACEs and cisgender men with all 8 ACEs. Indirect effects of ACEs on LSA via depressive symptoms were also observed, and the mediating effect was moderated by gender identity. Conclusions By examining the mechanisms linking childhood adversity to LSA, this study demonstrates that not all ACEs impact gender minority subgroups equally.