Self-harm prevalence and ideation in a community sample of cis,trans and other youth

Abstract

Background: Trans youth have been reported to have high rates of self-harm, depression and bullying, and find it difficult to seek support. However, much of this research comes from gender identity clinics; non-clinical samples and those who reject gender binaries remain under-researched.

Aims: This study investigated the experiences of a community school-based sample of Trans, identifying youth, Other, and cis-gendered adolescents in relation to their experiences of low mood, bullying, associated support, self-harm ideation and peer-related self-harm.

Methods: An online survey was completed by 8440 13–17?year olds (3625 male, 4361 female, 227 Other, and 55 Trans).

Results: Trans and Other students had significantly higher rates of self-harm ideation and peer self-harm, in comparison to cis-gendered students. These Trans and Other students reported significantly higher rates of bullying and self-reported depression and significantly less support from teachers and staff at school, in fact these students did not know where to go to access help.

Discussion: This community sample confirms findings of high rates of self-harm ideation, self-reported depression and bullying for Trans youth as previously reported in clinic-based samples. However, by accessing a community sample, the salience of the category “Other” was established for young people today. While Other and Trans identified students both struggled to find support, those who identified as Trans were more likely to have been bullied, and have experienced self-reported depression and thoughts of self-harm. Thus, those who identify as transgender represent a high-risk group that needs targeted support within schools and by statutory and nonstatutory community services. Unpacking the category of Other would be beneficial for future research, as well as exploring resilience within this group and intersecting identities such as sexuality, Autism, or experiences such as earlier abuse.     

Belief bias and relational reasoning

When people evaluate categorical syllogisms, they tend to reject unbelievable conclusions and accept believable ones irrespective of their validity. Typically, this effect is particularly marked for invalid conclusions that are possible, but do not necessarily follow, given the premises. However, smaller believability effects can also be detected for other types of conclusion. Three experiments are reported here, in which an attempt was made to determine whether belief bias effects can manifest themselves on the relational inference task. Subjects evaluated the validity of conclusions such as William the Conqueror was king after the Pyramids were built (temporal task) or Manchester is north of Bournemouth (spatial task) with respect to their premises. All of the majorfindings for equivalent categorical syllogism tasks were replicated. However, the overall size of the main effect of believability appears to be related to task presentation, a phenomenon not previously identified for categorical syllogisms and which current theories of belief bias have difficulty explaining.     

"Feminine Protection": The Effects of Menstruation on Attitudes Towards Women

An experiment tested the hypothesis that reminders of a woman's menstrual status lead to more negative reactions to her and increased objectification of women in general. Participants interacted with a female confederate who ostensibly accidentally dropped either a tampon or hair clip out of her handbag. Dropping the tampon led to lower evaluations of the confederate's competence, decreased liking for her, and a marginal tendency to avoid sitting close to her. Furthermore, gender schematic participants responded to the reminder of menstruation with increased objectification of women in general, an effect we view as an effort to "protect" culturally sanitized views of the feminine. These findings are discussed from the perspective of feminist theory and a terror management perspective on the role of ambivalence about the human body in the objectification of women.     

Ethnocultural Differences in Prevalence of Adolescent Suicidal Behaviors

Data from an ethnically diverse sample of middle school students (grades 6–8; n = 5,423) are analyzed for ethnic differences in suicidal ideation, thoughts about suicide in the past 2 weeks, suicide plans, and suicide attempts. Ideation was examined using a four-item scale and a single item on suicidal thoughts. Ideation was higher among females, older youths, and lower status youths. The same general pattern held for recent suicidal plans and attempts, with the exception of gender, where the trend was for males to report more attempts. Lifetime plans and attempts were higher for females, older youths, and lower status youths. Data were sufficient to compare nine ethnic groups. Multivariate logistic regression analyses, adjusting for the effects of age, gender, and socioeconomic status, yielded significant odds ratios using the Anglo group as the reference, for suicidal ideation for the Mexican (OR = 1.76, p < .001), Pakistani (OR = 2.0, p < .01), and Vietnamese (OR = 1.48, p < .05) American groups. For thoughts about suicide in the past 2 weeks, only Pakistani and Mixed Ancestry youths had elevated risk. For suicidal plans in the past 2 weeks, Mixed Ancestry youths (OR = 2.02, p < .05) and Pakistani youths (OR = 3.20, p < .01) had elevated risk. For recent attempts, only the Pakistani American youths had elevated risk (OR = 3.19, p < .01). Future research needs to address whether these results hold in other ethnically diverse communities and, if so, what factors contribute to increased risk among some minority youth and not others.     

Racism,stress, and sense of personal control among Aboriginal Australian pregnant women

Objectives

To characterise racism experiences in the past year and to investigate a causal association between racism, stress, and sense of personal control in a sample of pregnant South Australian Aboriginal women.

Methods

Data was from the baseline sample of 369 Aboriginal women participating in a randomised controlled trial to prevent early caries in children. Data on demographics, racism experiences, stress, sense of personal control, and health behaviours were collected through interview-guided questionnaires. Linear regression modelling was used to test the association between racism and stress and sense of personal control in separate models. The final models presented were adjusted for confounding.

Results

Participant mean age was 24.7 years (SD ±0.30; Min–Max: 14–43 years). Almost two-thirds (64.7%) resided in rural and regional areas and the highest educational attainment for almost three-quarters (73.7%) was high school or less. Nearly half (48.3%) reported at least one experience of racism in the previous year and almost one third (31.8%) reported racism occurring in a public setting. The adjusted regression coefficients for the effect of racism on stress and sense of personal control were respectively 0.61 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.28, 0.93) and −0.36 (95% CI −0.68, −0.04).

Conclusions

Our findings contribute with evidence that racism is one of the psychosocial causes of poor mental health among Aboriginal Australians. Culturally sensitive and safe mental health interventions may be beneficial in buffering racism effects during pregnancy. Societal-level policies aimed at both naming and reducing institutionalised racism against Aboriginal Australian Aboriginals are necessary.