Skip to Main Content
Skip Nav Destination

Suicidal Ideation, Plans, and Attempts in Sexual Minority Compared to Heterosexual Youth :

February 10, 2020

Suicide remains a leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults. While we have published studies looking at suicidal ideation, planning, and actual attempts across this age group, a closer look at differences in subpopulations reveals unrecognized disparities.

Suicide remains a leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults. While we have published studies looking at suicidal ideation, planning, and actual attempts across this age group, a closer look at differences in subpopulations reveals unrecognized disparities. That is the conclusion reached in two studies on adolescent suicide behaviors in sexual minority versus heterosexual youth being early released this week. The first of these studies, by Liu et al, (10.1542/peds.2019-2221) evaluated population-based surveillance data from 1995 to 2017 in over 41,000 teenagers who filled out the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Study. The good news in this study is that suicidal ideation, plans, and attempts declined for both sexual minority and heterosexual youth over the 23 years studied, but the improvements were much more dramatic for heterosexual youth. In fact, suicidal behaviors remained much higher for sexual minority youth compared to heterosexual youth despite some improvement in both populations.

A study by Raifman et al (10.1542/peds.2019-1658) showed similar results using data from Youth Risk Behavior surveys in 10 states from 2009 to 2017. This study found that although suicide attempts declined for both sexual minority and heterosexual youth, the sexual minority youth were still three times more likely to attempt suicide compared to heterosexual teens. 

What do we do with the troublesome findings demonstrating an increasing gap in rates of suicide behaviors and attempts in sexual minority youth, despite the overall declining rates?  We asked Drs. Brian Mustanski and Dorothy Espelage from the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing at Northwestern to weigh in with an accompanying commentary (10.1542/peds.2019-4002). Drs. Mustanski and Espelage note strengths some limitations of both studies in identifying the disparities in suicide rates between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. But rather than just point out that the gap persists, Drs. Mustanski and Espelage suggest interventions and a related research agenda to address these disparities. Check out both the studies and commentary and consider what you might do in your practice or community to reduce or even eliminate suicide attempts in our sexual minority patients. 

Close Modal

or Create an Account

Close Modal
Close Modal