Empowerment moderates risk for suicide among LGBTQ+ young adults

There is a great need to examine resilience-based, modifiable protective factors of the established risk-relationship between experiences of discrimination, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth. Preliminary studies suggest that psychological empowerment shows promise as a potential protective factor. The current study evaluated whether empowerment moderated the relationship between experiences of sexual and gender discrimination, NSSI, suicide ideation, and past-year suicide attempts.

Three hundred five LGBTQ + -identifying young adults completed an anonymous online survey assessing discriminatory experiences, psychological empowerment, NSSI history, past-year worst-point suicide ideation and suicide attempts. Five moderated regression models were conducted using the PROCESS macro for SPSS.

Empowerment significantly moderated the relationship between sexual/gender-discrimination and suicide attempt as well as the relationships between suicide ideation and NSSI on past-year attempts. When empowerment was high, sexual/gender discrimination, suicide ideation, and NSSI were no longer significantly associated with past-year suicide attempts, suggesting a protective effect. Empowerment had a significant, negative relationship with both suicide ideation and NSSI frequency but did not moderate the effect of discrimination experiences on these variables.

Empowerment appears to be a viable protective factor for suicide risk among sexual and gender diverse young adults. Interventions that promote the development of a sense of empowerment may help to reduce risk and prevent suicide within this high-risk population.