Investigating the relation between suicide ideation and attempts in transgender adolescents and social support, life satisfaction and coping skills

Research shows that transgender adolescents report more suicide ideation than their cisgender peers. Acceptance by peers and family is often reported as a protective factor. This research studied the link between suicide ideation, social support and coping skills. In this quantitative cross-sectional study, an online anonymous convenience sample was selected by a research call on social media. Topics of the survey included suicide thoughts and attempts, life satisfaction, social support, transphobic experiences, positive aspects in their lives and their coping style (measured by the Utrecht Coping List (UCL)). Backward stepwise selection was used to select explanatory models for suicide ideation and attempts in the last year. Of the 96 participants between 16 and 24 year old, 48 (50.0%) identified as gender variant, 29 (30.2%) as male and 19 (19.8%) as female. The average age was 20.1 year old. The average life satisfaction was 5,8 on a scale of 10. Most of the adolescents (80.2%) was a victim of transphobic violence at least once. The three most common incidents were verbal aggression (83.1%), gossip (70.1%) and bullying (59.7%). Only 15.6% of the adolescents said they never had suicide thoughts. Of the 81 participants who ever thought of suicide, 70.4% said this was in the last 12 months. Of those 81 adolescents 45.6% said their suicide thoughts were linked to their gender identity: 43.3% of the adolescents reported that their suicide thoughts decreased after their coming out while 20.9% reported that they increased, 34.3% of the adolescents reported that their suicide thoughts decreased after accessing transgender related health care while 13.4% reported that they increased. The hierarchical regression shows that being connected to the people you live with (p=.034) and the life satisfaction (p=.01) explains 31% of the variance in suicide ideation in the last 12 months. A second model, looking into the relation between coping and suicide ideation shows that a passive reaction pattern (p<.001) explains 22,8% of the variation. When looking at the live prevalence of suicide attempts, 59.4% reported they’ve never attempted suicide while 19.8% reported one suicide attempt and 20.9% reported multiple attempts. Of the 39 adolescents that reported at least one suicide attempt, 43.6% reported that at least one attempt was in the last 12 months. The backward stepwise selection shows that being supported by the people you live with (p=.024) and by your colleagues end/or fellow students (p=.017) explains 61,2% of the variance in suicide attempts in the last 12 months. A second model focusing on the coping style shows that comforting thoughts (p=.006) explains 29,1% of the variation. Our models show that it is important to focus on social support, mostly on the support of the people the adolescents live with and on the support of colleagues and/or fellow students, and on the overall life satisfaction on the youth. When looking at the coping skills, it’s important to expand comforting thoughts with youth who struggle with suicide attempts and reducing the passive reaction patterns for those with suicide ideation.

Jaar van publicatie:2023