Suicide ideation among transgender youth

There is a paucity of research on suicide among transgender youth, including suicide ideation and suicide attempts. Using Joiner’s Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide, this study tested the two constructs of the model that Joiner identified as leading to suicide ideation: thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness; and it explored factors that may be related to the constructs and may independently be related to suicide ideation.  Among a sample of 127 transmen (FtM) and 99 transwomen (MtF), ages 15-21 from three U.S. urban areas, preliminary analyses indicated both constructs were significantly related to suicide ideation as measured by the (8-item) Negative Suicide Ideation Scale of the Positive and Negative Suicide Ideation Inventory (PANSI). In a regression analysis only the construct of perceived burdensomeness remained significant.  Follow-up analyses indicated that parental psychological abuse and physical abuse were correlated with perceived burdensomeness among FtM youth and that perceived lifetime sexual identity victimization was correlated with perceived burdensomeness among MtF youth. Further analyses examine the inclusion of LGBT coming-out stress and childhood gender nonconformity as predictors of suicide ideation among both groups of transgender youth.