IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2011.300530_2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elevated risk of posttraumatic stress in sexual minority Youths: Mediation by childhood abuse and gender nonconformity

Author

Listed:
  • Roberts, A.L.
  • Rosario, M.
  • Corliss, H.L.
  • Koenen, K.C.
  • Austin, S.B.

Abstract

Objectives. We examined whether lifetime risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was elevated in sexual minority versus heterosexual youths, whether childhood abuse accounted for disparities in PTSD, and whether childhood gender nonconformity explained sexual-orientation disparities in abuse and subsequent PTSD. Methods. We used data from a population-based study (n = 9369, mean age = 22.7 years) to estimate risk ratios for PTSD. We calculated the percentage of PTSD disparities by sexual orientation accounted for by childhood abuse and gender nonconformity, and the percentage of abuse disparities by sexual orientation accounted for by gender nonconformity. Results. Sexual minorities had between 1.6 and 3.9 times greater risk of probable PTSD than heterosexuals. Child abuse victimization disparities accounted for one third to one half of PTSD disparities by sexual orientation. Higher prevalence of gender nonconformity before age 11 years partly accounted for higher prevalence of abuse exposure before age 11 years and PTSD by early adulthood in sexual minorities (range = 5.2%-33.2%). Conclusions. Clinicians, teachers, and others who work with youths should consider abuse prevention and treatment measures for gender-nonconforming children and sexual minority youths.

Suggested Citation

  • Roberts, A.L. & Rosario, M. & Corliss, H.L. & Koenen, K.C. & Austin, S.B., 2012. "Elevated risk of posttraumatic stress in sexual minority Youths: Mediation by childhood abuse and gender nonconformity," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(8), pages 1587-1593.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300530_2
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300530
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300530
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300530?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth J. Ela & Jamie Budnick, 2017. "Non-Heterosexuality, Relationships, and Young Women’s Contraceptive Behavior," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 887-909, June.
    2. Vieira, Alyssa & Sheerin, Kaitlin M. & Williamson-Butler, Shannon & Pederson, Casey A. & Thompson, Elizabeth C. & Soriano, Sheiry & Wolff, Jennifer C. & Spirito, Anthony & Kemp, Kathleen, 2023. "Non-suicidal self-injury, suicidal behaviors, and mental health symptoms among sexual minority youth with juvenile justice system involvement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    3. Ugueto, Ana M. & Lucassen, Mathijs F.G., 2022. "Differences in suicidality and psychological symptoms between sexual and gender minority youth compared to heterosexual and cisgender youth in a psychiatric hospital," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Gatwiri, Kathomi & Cameron, Nadine & McPherson, Lynne & Mitchell, Janise, 2022. "Care experienced LGBTQA + young people in out-of-home care in Australia: A case study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2011.300530_2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.