Bullying and Suicidality among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Youth: Examining the Importance of Race and Ethnicity

Anna S. Mueller, University of Memphis
Wesley James, University of Memphis
Seth Abrutyn, University of Memphis
Martin Levin, University of Memphis

Our objective is to understand how race, gender and sexual orientation interact to condition the relationship between bullying and suicide ideation in adolescence. To accomplish this goal, we analyze a large, regionally-diverse sample compiled from Youth Risk Behavior Surveys. We find that though sexual minority youth are at higher risk of suicide ideation, regardless of their race or gender, not all sexual minority youth are at higher odds of being bullied. Specifically, Black and Latina lesbians are not significantly more likely to be bullied than their same-race/sex counterparts. Further, race and gender condition the association between being bullied and suicide ideation. For some groups, being bullied is not associated with higher odds of suicidal thoughts. This suggests that other factors may be responsible for the increase risk of suicide ideation among GLB youth.