New research from the Canadian Medical Association suggests that children and adolescents who identify as transgender or non-binary have a 5-fold higher risk of suicidal ideation than their cisgender peers.
Transgender youth were also 7.6 times more likely to have attempted suicide.
The study, published June 6th in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, noted that transgender and gender-nonconforming youth seem to have a higher probability of many risk factors for suicidality, including peer victimization, family dysfunction, and barriers to accessing mental health care.
Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people aged 15–24 years in Canada, yet the epidemiology of suicidality among transgender and gender-nonconforming youth has previously been underrepresented in population-based samples.
Lead researcher, Dr Ian Colman, a professor at the University of Ottawa and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, said that their findings of such dramatic increases in suicide risk should sound a clarion call that additional support is needed.
“The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a very stressful time for all young people, but particularly for gender and sexual minority teens,” Dr Coleman said.
“Over the previous 2 decades, stigma around identifying as a sexual minority has reduced; however, the risk of poor mental health and of suicidality remains high among sexual minority youth.
“This population is still more likely to experience bullying and peer victimization, which is associated with suicidality among sexual minority adolescents.”
The team looked at data from the national 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth, a sample including 6800 adolescents aged 15–17 years, of which 99.4% were cisgender, and 0.6% were transgender.
The majority (78.6%) of respondents were heterosexual, 14.7% were attracted to multiple genders, 4.3% were unsure of their attraction, 1.6% were girls attracted to girls, and 0.8% were boys attracted to boys.
Overall, 14% of teens experienced suicidal ideation within the previous year, and 6.8% had previously attempted suicide.
“A really concerning finding is that more than half of all transgender youth reported seriously considering suicide in the previous 12 months,” said co-author Fae Johnstone, a trans woman and executive director of Wisdom2Action.
“This is a crisis, and it shows just how much more needs to be done to support transgender young people.
“Suicide prevention programs specifically targeted to transgender, nonbinary and sexual minority adolescents, as well as gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents, may help reduce the burden of suicidality among this group.
“Given that these associations were partially mediated through the experience of bullying, systemic change in the form of primary prevention programs aimed at public awareness and promoting inclusivity may lead to a reduction of the experience of minority stress among sexual minority and transgender youth, reducing their risk of poor mental health and suicidality.”