The Trevor Project's research team has published a new peer-reviewed article titled "Understanding the Mental Health of Transgender and Nonbinary Youth" in the Journal of Adolescent Health ( JAH ).
Among the key findings:
—When accounting for age, family income, and youth race/ethnicity, transgender and nonbinary youth were 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and questioning peers.
—Transgender and nonbinary youth reported higher rates of perceived discrimination because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and reported having been physically threatened or harmed at nearly twice the rate of cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning youth.
—Transgender males reported higher rates of depressive mood ( 86 percent ), having seriously considered suicide ( 62 percent ), and attempted suicide ( 35 percent ) in the past 12 months compared with youth of all other gender identities.
—Transgender males, transgender females, and nonbinary youth assigned female at birth were all significantly more likely than cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning peers to report seriously considering suicide.
"Prior to this study, there was a clear lack of research on the differences in mental health and suicidality within different sub-groups of LGBTQ youth. These results underscore that transgender and nonbinary youth are particularly vulnerable to poor mental health outcomes and suicide risk compared to their cisgender peers within the LGBTQ community. Furthermore, they show how LGBTQ-based discrimination and victimization contribute to these increased mental health disparities," said Trevor Project Director of Research Amy E. Green, Ph. D., in a statement.
The study, "Understanding the Mental Health of Transgender and Nonbinary Youth," will be included in the medical journal's June 2020 "Pride" issue. It is searchable at Article Link Here and available after creating an account.
The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people. The Trevor Project's trained crisis counselors are available 24/7 at 1-866-488-7386, via chat at TheTrevorProject.org/Help, or by texting "START" to 678678.
