McDermott, E, Hughes, E orcid.org/0000-0002-4480-0806 and Rawlings, V (2018) The social determinants of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth suicidality in England: a mixed methods study. Journal of Public Health, 40 (3). e244-e251. ISSN 1741-3842
Abstract
Background
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth have a higher risk of suicidality and self-harm than heterosexual youth populations but little is known about the underlying mechanisms. We aimed to investigate the social determinants of this mental health inequality.
Methods
A two-stage sequential mixed method study was conducted. Firstly, 29 semi-structured interviews with LGBT youth (aged 13–25 years old) were completed. Data was analysed thematically. Stage 2 involved a self-completed questionnaire employing an online community-based sampling strategy (n = 789). Logistic regression analysis was performed to predict suicidality.
Results
Five social determinants explained suicidal risk: (i) homophobia, biphobia or transphobia; (ii) sexual and gender norms; (iii) managing sexual and gender identities across multiple life domains; (iv) being unable to talk; (v) other life crises. Youth who were transgender (OR = 1.50, P < 0.022), disabled (OR = 2.23, P < 0.000), had self-harmed (OR = 7.45, P < 0.000), were affected by abuse (OR = 2.14, P < 0.000), and affected by not talking about their emotions (OR = 2.43, P < 0.044) were most likely to have planned or attempted suicide.
Conclusions
Public health universal interventions that tackle bullying and discrimination in schools, and selected interventions that provide specific LGBT youth mental health support could reduce LGBT mental health inequalities in youth suicidality.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). |
Keywords: | mental health; social determinants; young people; sexual orientation; gender identity |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Healthcare (Leeds) > Nursing Mental Health (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 31 May 2019 11:28 |
Last Modified: | 03 Jun 2019 13:53 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/pubmed/fdx135 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:146827 |
Commentary/Response Threads
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McDermott, E, Hughes, E and Rawlings, V
The social determinants of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth suicidality in England: a mixed methods study. (deposited 31 May 2019 11:28)
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- McDermott, E, Hughes, E and Rawlings, V Corrigendum: The social determinants of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth suicidality in England: a mixed methods study. (deposited 31 May 2019 14:15)