Symposia
LGBQT+
Kirsty A. Clark, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Joseph Sexton, None
Undergraduate Student
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Tara McKay, PhD
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee
Background: Suicide loss survivors are at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes including psychological distress, suicidal ideation, and suicide. Sexual minority people experience increased risk for suicide and are also connected with a greater number of other sexual minorities (i.e., romantic partners, friends, community acquaintances) than are heterosexuals. Whether this increases sexual minority people’s risk for suicide bereavement is unknown; we sought to answer this question using nationally representative survey data.
Method: Cross-sectional data were drawn from the 2016 General Social Survey (GSS; 61.3% response rate), a biennial survey that is representative of non-institutionalized US adults 18 years and older. In 2016, the GSS included a series of questions assessing suicide exposure and bereavement. Analyses included respondents who were administered these questions and reported sexual orientation information (N=1281). Descriptive statistics were used to describe sexual orientation group differences in suicide loss characteristics. Among those who were exposed to at least one suicide (n=698, 51.1%), multivariable logistic regression examined the association between sexual orientation and severe suicide bereavement emotional distress adjusting for potential confounders.
Results: A higher proportion of sexual minorities versus heterosexuals were younger, never married, and experienced recent frequent mental distress. There were no sexual orientation group differences in number of lifetime suicide exposures, perceived closeness to the person(s) who died, or time elapsed since the suicide(s). However, sexual minorities experienced 3.14 greater odds of severe suicide bereavement emotional distress compared to heterosexuals (95% CI = 1.42-6.94, P=.005). The only other model parameters significant at P< .05 were female sex (aOR=1.87, 95% CI =1.19-2.93, P=.007) and being very close or close to the person who died (aOR =17.39, 95% CI=10.76-28.09, P< .001).
Discussion: Sexual minorities experience substantially greater emotional distress related to suicide bereavement. Studying the impact of suicide mortality from the perspective of the bereaved represents an important and understudied aspect of the reach of social and structural stigma and discrimination against sexual minority people and communities. To prevent suicide, clinicians should be prepared to identify and provide postvention support to the suicide bereaved especially in highly affected populations.