LGBQ Adolescents at Much Greater Risk of Suicide than Heterosexual Counterparts

Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - Adolescents who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or questioning are much more likely to consider, plan or attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, according to research from the University of Pennsylvania , the University of California, San Diego , and San Diego State University published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association . Specifically, of a nationally representative sample of 15,624 high-school age participants, 40 percent of sexual-minority adolescents seriously considered suicide compared to 15 percent of their heterosexual counterparts. Nearly a quarter attempted suicide compared to approximately 6 percent of those in the sexual majority. "The most staggering finding, the one that really makes you think, is just how prevalent these suicide-risk behaviors are in the LGBQ adolescent community," said Theodore L. Caputi, who conducted this work while at Penn's Wharton School and who is now a pursuing a master's degree at University College Cork in Ireland. "Research has shown that suicide-risk behaviors are an indicator of extreme distress." Caputi's research focuses mostly on substance-use disorders like the opioid epidemic and teenage drug use. During a fellowship in Wharton's Summer Program for Undergraduate Research , while investigating the intersection of minority groups, substance use and mental-health disorders, he noticed a gap in the literature. "The more I researched the connection between suicide risk and teens who identify as sexual minorities, the more interesting it became," he said.