US study shows lower LGBT teen suicide rates where sames sex marriage is legal

Ten of Swords

A study published today by researchers in Harvard and John Hopkins Medical School has shown a statistically significant drop in teen and young adult suicide rates in states where same sex marriage has been legalized in the US.

The study initially found that 29% of LGBQ students reported attempting suicide during the previous 12 months compared to 6% of heterosexual adolescents. The age category was 15-24 year olds. The results of the study showed that in states where same sex marriage was legal the rate of suicide attempts by all students dropped by 7% but this effect was concentrated in the sexual minorities group. This was calculated to be 134,000 less suicide attempts based on the US population.

The study used difference-in-differences analysis which means that they grouped 32 states that legalized same sex marriage by Jan 1st 2015 and 15 states that did not. They then looked at the changes in attempted suicide rates within the groups, and then compared these changes to the other group. There was a significant difference and the conclusion drawn is that something in the states that legalized same sex marriage resulted in adolescents attempting suicide less frequently.

It may not necessarily have been the legalization itself that caused the drop in suicide rates but it could have been something that at would correlate with legalization such as a change in attitudes towards gay people and more social acceptance.

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2604258

This is an extract from the Discussion section of the study

Our study documents that implementation of same-sex marriage policies was associated with a significant decrease in the proportion of high school students attempting suicide in 32 states that implemented same-sex marriage policies by January 1, 2015, relative to 15 states that did not implement same-sex marriage policies by that date. After same-sex marriage laws were implemented, the proportion of high school students reporting suicide attempts in the past year decreased by 0.6 percentage points, equivalent to a 7% decline. Reductions in the proportion of high school students attempting suicide were concentrated among students identifying as sexual minorities. Furthermore, we found that the effects of legalization persisted 2 years after legalization, suggesting that social and political backlash does not have the effect of worsening mental health outcomes in this window...

...We estimated that, each year, same-sex marriage policies would be associated with more than 134 000 fewer adolescents attempting suicide. These results reflect an important reduction in adolescent emotional distress and risk of mortality from suicide.

BlinkingLights

That makes perfect sense as it would follow that the states where it isn't legal have major hang ups about homosexuality and are generally less liberal and more religious and conservative.

jobbridge4life

Encouraging news. I hope that we see similar results here and elsewhere. One hopes Trump doesn't reverse this trend in the USA.

L1011

jobbridge4life wrote: »

Encouraging news. I hope that we see similar results here and elsewhere. One hopes Trump doesn't reverse this trend in the USA.

I'm not too concerned about Trump - it has been suggested Ivanka has put the brakes on anything there. Its what Pence could do when Trump gets bored (could be a matter of weeks...) or impeached (after the mid-terms, possibly).

Leonard Hofstadter

L1011 wrote: »

I'm not too concerned about Trump - it has been suggested Ivanka has put the brakes on anything there. Its what Pence could do when Trump gets bored (could be a matter of weeks...) or impeached (after the mid-terms, possibly).

Yeah apparently that is the case, Ivanka and her husband are very pro LGBT rights, after all the Trumps are from liberal NYC where equal rights have been the norm for a much longer period of time than the US as a whole, not that that was enough to stop them doing something about trans people being able to use the toilet that suits them, mind you.

Pence is a right headbanger when it comes to LGBT rights, though, unlike Trump he is a no holes barred old school Republican.