Does social support moderate the relationship between gender minority stress and suicide within a sample of transgender and gender diverse people?

Abstract

Introduction

Transgender and gender diverse individuals experience increased suicidality in comparison to same-aged peers. Protective factors—in particular, social support—may ameliorate painful life events and circumstances.

Method

Using a sample of 217 adults obtained through convenience chain-sampling methods with recruitment requests posted to list-servs, distributed to organizations related to LGBTQ issues, and social media, the current study tested whether social support moderated participants’ experiences of gender minority stress and suicidality, and whether the type of social support changed the relationship between stress and suicidal ideation.

Result

Family and hetero-cisgender friend supports were significantly related to gender minority stress and suicidal ideation. However, neither LGBT-social support nor significant other support were found to moderate the relationship.

Conclusion

Translation of these findings to clinical and research settings are provided.

Keywords:

• Transgender
• gender diverse
• gender minority stress
• suicidality
• social support

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Table 1. Participant demographics (N = 217).

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Data availability statement

Questions about and access to the data can be addressed to the corresponding author.