[WITHDRAWN] Suicide Behaviors, Gender, and Sexual Identity Among Asian American Adolescents

Introduction: Disparities in youth suicide rates between different groups of youth have been a critical public health issue. Asian American adolescents have reported higher levels of suicide risk with lower rates of mental health service utilization compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Female adolescents have reported higher suicide risk than male adolescents. Sexual minority adolescents also have reported a higher risk of suicide compared to their counterparts. Recent studies highlight that intersectionality between race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity plays a role in suicidality of youth. With the importance of adolescent identity in understanding suicide risk, suicidologists highlight that three suicide behavior—suicide ideation, suicide planning, and suicide attempts—should be considered independently to design a unique intervention plan for each suicide behavior. Therefore, this research aimed to examine how different identities of Asian American adolescents play a role in suicide ideation, planning, and attempts individually.

Method: This study used the Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey collected in 2021 in the U.S. A total of 293 responses from Asian American adolescents were used in the analysis. The average age of respondents was 15.9 years old, 56.3% of respondents were female, and 23.2% identified themselves as a sexual minority. As dependent variables of this study, experiences of suicide ideation, planning, and attempts during the last 12 months were coded as 1 if they have experienced and 0 if they haven’t. As independent variables, gender (female = 1, male = 0), and sexual minority (LGBTQ+ = 1, heterosexual/straight = 0) were used. Age was included in the analysis as a control variable. Hierarchical logistic regression with R was conducted to understand the relationship between identity and suicide behaviors of Asian American adolescents.

Result: 17.7% of Asian American adolescents reported that they have thought about suicide, 14.3% reported that they have made plans for suicide, and 8.9% reported that they have attempted suicide during the last 12 months. The odds of thinking suicide were higher among LGBTQ+ adolescents compared to that of heterosexual/straight adolescents (OR = 2.71, p < .01). The odds of planning suicide were higher among LGBTQ+ adolescents compared to their counterparts (OR = 4.58, p < .001). The odds of attempting suicide were higher among LGBTQ+ adolescents compared to their counterparts (OR = 3.26, p < .01). In terms of gender, there was no significant effect after adding sexual minority variable in hierachical regression model.

Discussion: This research adds literature on suicide prevention for Asian American adolescents, especially for those who are sexual minorities in the current society. The results support the findings of previous studies which highlighted sexual minority adolescents are more likely to experience suicidal behaviors compared to heterosexual/straight adolescents. The result also suggests that sexual identity may need to be considered relatively more than gender when it comes to understanding and preventing suicide behaviors of Asian American adolescents. Moving forward, more future research is needed to understand the relationship between suicide and identities, especially with the consideration of intersectionality, to reduce health disparities among adolescents.