WAYS TO CULTIVATE RESILIENCE IN LGBTQ+ YOUTH

A systematic review of school-based resilience promotion education found students had more self-efficacy, increased usage and effectiveness of coping skills, and mental health protective factors after receiving resilience enhancing sessions.18 For LGBTQ+ youth, delivery of this education could occur through gay-straight-alliances (GSAs) which already serve as a protective factor.3,19 However, GSAs are not always available. Students of color and students living in the South have significant less access to GSAs, but are also among the greatest students of need to help improve mental health and well-being.20

LGBTQ+ community centers and health clinics can also provide important social support, resources, and care for LGBTQ+ youth, but like school GSAs, these are not always available and can also be dependent upon access to transportation, health insurance, and other socioeconomic resources that LGBTQ+ youth have disparities in.1 Increasing LGBTQ+ cultural competency in health providers and reducing unconscious and conscious biases also remains a crucial, yet ongoing effort.7,21 It is incredibly disheartening when LGBTQ+ youth finally muster the bravery to receive the healthcare they deserve, only to be rejected and invalidated by a practitioner who does not accept their right to exist. In many ways, the rejection and invalidation experienced by LGBTQ+ youth in a health clinic, a vulnerable place that should be safe and nurturing, can severely harm their self-worth and views of themselves, increasing risk of anxiety, depression, and suicide.1,4,6 In contrast, having a health provider that affirms, validates, and supports LGBTQ+ youth identity can cultivate social resilience, also leading to vital healthcare treatments and resources, resulting in improved well-being and increased resilience. 3,4,6,13,14,16 Therefore, it is imperative that in the conversation of LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention, health systems and practitioners fight antiLGBTQ+ sentiment as much as possible, as it will lead to increased resilience and help reduce the risk of suicide in LGBTQ+ youth.

The Internet, specifically social media platforms and online communities, also play an important role in LGBTQ youth resilience and well-being. TP found that for LGBTQ youth, 71% had access to online affirming communities compared to 47% at school and 33% at home.1 Therefore, I believe that delivering resilience enhancing education through the community’s highly utilized social media platforms would significantly help LGBTQ+ youth manage their life’s challenges and create protective factors against suicide. This is corroborated by a study which reviewed social media habits of LGBTQ+ youth, indicating that younger LGBTQ+ people are more likely to use social media to enhance well-being than their older counterparts.22 Specifically, utilization of social media and the Internet helps connect LGBTQ+ youth to information regarding their identities, to feel stronger, to learn, and to have a sense of community.22 Social media can therefore act as a tool for building social support, promote individual resilience enhancing education, and build community resilience for the LGBTQ+ youth community.

One particular app that I implore future research on is Tik Tok. Tik Tok is a newer social media platform whose utilization is not greatly studied in LGBTQ+ youth, but in the Washington Post, columnist Olheiser describes how “Tik Tok has become the soul of the LGBTQ internet.”23 I believe studying LGBTQ+ youth Tik Tok utilization would update existing literature and must be assessed for the application’s ability to promote individual and community resilience. Tik Tok uses an algorithm that connects users to content reflecting their interests, creating LGBTQ visibility, community, and could therefore lead to protective factors against suicide.23 TP’s 2021 survey also found that LGBTQ youth mentioned watching LGBTQ people on Tik Tok and YouTube as a way to find joy, strength, and consequently develop resilience.1 It would also be beneficial to further study this app specifically, along with other highly utilized social media platforms to see how they could be negatively impacting LGBTQ+ youth as well.

I also believe more needs to be studied about LGBTQ+ youth utilization of swipebased dating applications (SBDAs) and Grindr. Specifically, Grindr, a location-based app commonly used for hookups, can affect individual’s body image, lead to feelings of objectification, and social comparison.24 SBDA users have higher levels of anxiety and depression, though causality remains uncertain.25 This could be an element that negatively affects both community resilience and individual resilience and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth since these apps allow for LGBTQ+ specific connection. To better explore the impact of resilience practices, social media, SBDAs, and Grindr, I suggest a full list of research suggestions in Table 2 (page 20)

Conclusion

Minority stress theory helps explain how societal intolerance manifests into socioeconomic and intrapersonal stressors of LGBTQ+ youth that create risk factors for suicide which public policy and system-approaches could relieve. Ensuring LGBTQ+ have appropriate, culturally competent healthcare is a vital part in this discussion. However, such efforts could require significant time, while the needs of LGBTQ+ youth are immediate. Cultivating resilience in LGBTQ+ youth could serve as an immediate, effective suicide prevention method by encouraging community, fostering meaning, and inculcating self-care practices that lead to protective factors against suicide. Future research should highlight and differentiate the most efficacious resilience practices, and focus on how Tik Tok, SBDAs, and Grindr can affect resilience and suicide ideation, with the guiding principle to stop LGBTQ+ youth suicide.