AAPI LGBTQ+ Youth Face Heightened Risk for Mental Health Challenges

A sobering new study underscores the importance of culturally competent resources.
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A groundbreaking report on the mental health of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) LGBTQ+ youth is shedding new light on the unique challenges these often-neglected groups face.

The Trevor Project, an LGBTQ+ suicide prevention nonprofit, released the 30-page report on Tuesday, drawing from data from their annual national survey on the mental health of queer youth. Nearly 3,600 AAPI youth aged 13 to 24 were represented in the survey, with data further broken down by the many ethnic groups that fall under that category.

While the report found that AAPI LGBTQ+ youth are just as vulnerable to mental health challenges as LGBTQ+ youth more broadly, the survey found that they face distinct risk factors that other groups may not. Most alarmingly, 49% of Pacific Islander and 50% of trans AAPI respondents reported that they had seriously considered suicide in the past year, compared to a base rate of 40% for all respondents across the broader survey.

“These findings shine a light on the unique mental health outcomes and suicide risk of AAPI LGBTQ youth — a demographic that has largely been overlooked by the research world,” Myeshia Price, a senior research scientist at the Trevor Project, said in a statement about the study, which is one of the first to explore the intersection of the AAPI and LGBTQ+ communities.

The survey also polled whether or not respondents were out to all or most of the people in their lives, finding that only 19% of AAPI respondents were out, compared to 27% of LGBTQ+ youth as a whole. Trans AAPIs were also out to most of the important people in their lives at a lower rate (13%) than all trans youth (17%).

In addition, AAPI respondents were less likely to be out to their parents specifically, with 41% of youth reporting that they were not out to at least one parent about their sexual orientation. Only 29% of the general LGBTQ+ youth population reported the same. Trans AAPIs were also 10% more likely (51%) than the general sample (41%) to report not being out to at least one parent. 

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Other unique risk factors for AAPI LGBTQ+ youth included experiences of discrimination based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and gender identity. For example, multiracial AAPI respondents experienced lower rates of race/ethnicity-based discrimination (48%) compared to those who were not multiracial (60%). However, multiracial AAPIs reported slightly higher rates of sexual orientation-based discrimination (59%) compared to monoracial AAPIs (53%)

While LGBTQ+ AAPIs face risks that others do not, the report found that distinctive protective factors that can lower suicide risk, including a strong connection to their cultural background. The report found that respondents who reported that their cultural identity was integral to their overall self concept were half as likely to report attempting suicide in the past year (12%) than those for whom it wasn’t important at all (23%). 

As one might expect, higher levels of social support, whether from family or friends, was also correlated with lower suicide risk. Only 20% of all LGBTQ+ AAPI youth, however, said they experienced high levels of social support from family, with only 15% of trans AAPI youth reporting the same. 

More encouragingly, 74% of AAPI respondents, however, reported having high levels of social support more generally, which is similar to the rates among the LGBTQ+ community writ large.

Overall, the study underscores the importance of providing culturally competent resources and ensuring that LGBTQ+ AAPI people have access to affirming spaces, schools, and community events, all of which reduce are associated with reduced suicidality.

“This research points to the unmistakable need to invest in mental health resources and suicide prevention efforts for AAPI LGBTQ youth that are culturally salient, reflective of their diverse identities, and equip parents, other family members, and communities to better support them,” said Price.

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