Brief report: Differences in self-injurious thoughts and behaviors between sexual minority and heterosexual adolescent girls

Abstract

Purpose: Adolescent suicidal ideation (SI) and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) are associated with depression, but few studies adequately represent sexual minorities. This study investigated whether the association between SI/NSSI and depression varies by sexual orientation.

Method: SI, NSSI, sexual orientation, and depressive symptoms were measured in a community sample of adolescent girls (n = 1,803).

Results: Sexual orientation and depression accounted for unique risk for SI and NSSI in logistic regressions. Sexual orientation moderated the association between depression and NSSI.

Conclusions: Results indicate that depression is a less specific predictor of NSSI among sexual minority adolescents compared to their heterosexual peers and indicate a need for future research to delineate which psychosocial factors better account for NSSI risk.

Keywords:

• Adolescence
• Mental Health
• depression
• sexual minority
• suicide

Acknowledgments

The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding organizations. Special thanks go to the families of the Pittsburgh Girls Study for their participation in this research and to our dedicated research team.

Additional information

Funding

This project was supported by grants funded through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (HL137246) and the National Institute of Mental Health (MH056630). During the preparation of this manuscript, I.T. and J. N. received support from training grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (T32AA00745) and the National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH018269), respectively.