Victimization and Racial Discrimination and Associations with Suicidal Ideation for Sexual Minority Youth of Color

• In Event: 3-091 - Methodological Advances in Sexual Minority Youth Research: Developmental and Longitudinal Findings

Integrative Statement

Introduction
Sexual orientation victimization is linked with higher suicidal ideation among sexual minority youth (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer; SMY; Baams et al, 2014). In addition to sexual orientation victimization, SMY of color may also experience racial discrimination is tied to higher suicidal ideation (Thoma & Huebner, 2013). These two sources of stigma may contribute differently to suicidal ideation or interact to exacerbate suicide ideation.
Research Questions
1. Are racial discrimination and sexual orientation victimization differently related to suicidal ideation in sample of LGB youth of color?
2. Do experiences of racial discrimination and sexual orientation victimization interact to exacerbate SMY of colors’ suicidal ideation?
Sample
Data are a longitudinal sample of 885 cisgender SMY from three large urban cities. The sample was limited to SMY of color and wave one (W1) and wave two (W2) data (n = 478). SMY identified as gay/lesbian (n = 276), bisexual (n = 183), and queer (n = 19). SMY were Black (n = 173), Latinx (n = 137), Multi-racial (n = 125) and Native American, Asian, Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander (n = 35). Mean age = 18.96 (SD = 1.84)
Methods
Two items from the Brief Racism and Life Experience and Stress Scale (Harrell, 1996) were used to assess racial discrimination in the past year (W1 and W2) on a 5-point scale from not at all (1) to extremely (5). The two items were: "how much have personally experienced racism, racial discrimination or racial prejudice?” and "In general, how much stress has racism caused you?" (W1α = .68; W2α = .78).
Frequency of lifetime (W1) and past year (W2) sexual orientation victimization were assessed with six items (e.g. verbal, physical, or sexual victimization) on a 4-point scale (0) never to (3) three or more times (D’Augelli et al., 2008; W1α =.85; W2α = .75).
Suicide ideation during the past two weeks was assessed with the Positive and Negative Suicide Inventory (Muehlenkamp et al., 2005) on a 5-point scale (1) none of the time to (5) most of the time. An example item for negative suicidal ideation (W1α = .93; W2α = .92) is “how often have you seriously considered killing yourself because you could not live up to the expectations of other people?” An example item for positive suicidal ideation (W1α = .87; W2α = .89) is, “how often have you felt hopeful about the future because things were working out for you?”
Age, race, sexual identity, free/reduced lunch, time since coming out, and gender were controlled in the cross-lagged path analysis (See Figure 1).
Preliminary Results
W1 sexual orientation victimization positively associated with W2 negative suicidal ideation. However, this was qualified by an interaction between racial discrimination and sexual orientation victimization (See Figure 2). When SMY experienced high levels of racial discrimination and sexual orientation victimization, they had higher suicidal ideation nine months later. W1 racial discrimination negatively associated with W2 positive suicidal ideation. These results have implication for understanding risk and resilience for suicidal ideation among SMY of color.

Authors

• Allen Mallory, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Stephen T. Russell, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author