Sexual and gender minority individuals report higher rates of abuse and more severe eating disorder symptoms than cisgender heterosexual individuals at admission to eating disorder treatment

Summary & key facts

This large U.S. survey of nearly 34,000 LGBTQ young people (ages 13–24) found very high levels of mental health needs, discrimination, and barriers to care. Many youth reported thinking about or attempting suicide, high rates of anxiety and depression, and trouble getting the mental health care they wanted. Transgender and nonbinary youth tended to report worse outcomes than cisgender LGBTQ youth. The report also notes limits in available population data and calls attention to how mistreatment and lack of affirming spaces relate to these problems.

Key facts:

• Sample size: the survey included nearly 34,000 LGBTQ youth ages 13–24, with 45% youth of color and 48% transgender or nonbinary.
• 45% of LGBTQ youth said they seriously considered suicide in the past year. Among groups, 53% of transgender and nonbinary youth and 33% of cisgender youth reported seriously considering suicide.
• 14% of LGBTQ youth said they attempted suicide in the past year. This was 19% for transgender and nonbinary youth and 9% for cisgender youth.
• 73% of LGBTQ youth reported symptoms of anxiety. That included 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth and 65% of cisgender youth.
• 58% of LGBTQ youth reported symptoms of depression. That included 65% of transgender and nonbinary youth and 47% of cisgender youth.
• 82% of LGBTQ youth wanted mental health care in the past year. Of those who wanted care, 60% said they were not able to get it. This included about 58% of transgender and nonbinary youth and 62% of cisgender youth who wanted care.
• 36% of LGBTQ youth reported they had been physically threatened or harmed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
• 73% of LGBTQ youth reported experiencing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity at least once in their life.
• 17% of LGBTQ youth reported being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy. That includes 22% of transgender and nonbinary youth and 11% of cisgender youth.
• 93% of transgender and nonbinary youth said they worried about transgender people being denied access to gender-affirming medical care due to state or local laws.

Abstract

Our main hypothesis of greater abuse histories among SGMs was supported and could be one explanation of their more severe ED symptoms at treatment admission compared to CHs. In addition, elevated symptom severity in SGMs at admission coincides with greater delay between ED onset and treatment initiation among SGMs-possibly a consequence of difficulties with ED recognition in SGMs by healthcare providers. We recommend increased training for providers on identifying EDs in SGMs to reduce barriers to early intervention.

Topics

Gender, Feminism, and Media LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Demography Environmental health Injury prevention Internal medicine Logistic regression Medicine Odds ratio Poison control Psychology Sexual abuse Sexual minority Sexual orientation Social psychology Sociology