(PS7-A5) Depression in Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) Emerging Adults: Associations with Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) and Childhood Bullying

Purpose

Sexual and gender minority (SGM; i.e., those who identify as LGBTQ+) people are at an increased risk of mental illness. They are also more likely to report adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than their heterosexual, cisgender peers (Andersen & Blosnich, 2013; Austin et al., 2016; Schnarrs et al., 2019). Further, transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) people endorse higher levels of familial emotional abuse and mental health problems than cisgender LGB people (Schnarrs et al., 2019; Fox et al., 2020). Thus, we first hypothesized an interaction between SGM status and ACEs on depression, such that SGM participants with high ACE scores will have the highest depression. Second, we hypothesized TGNC people would have significantly higher depression scores, ACE scores, and bullying scores than LGB people. 

Procedure

Undergraduate students at eight U.S. universities completed the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), the Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (Felitti et al., 1998), the Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire (RBQ; Schäfer et al., 2004), and expansive questions about their sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Participants included 4,236 college students, 16.19% of whom identified as a sexual or gender minority (n = 686). 

Results

A two-way ANOVA was used to test hypothesis 1: the effects of SGM status and adverse childhood experiences (high vs. low) on depression. Both main effects were significant: SGM status (F [1,4235] = 96.132; p < .001) and ACEs (F [1,4235] = 161.083; p < .001); each had a significant effect on depression, such that having an SGM identity and reporting more ACE were associated with increases in depression. Contrary to hypothesis 1, there was no interaction effect between SGM status and ACEs on depression scores (F [1,4235] = 0.414; p = .520). Regarding hypothesis 2, a one-way ANOVA examined differences between the depression, ACE, and RBQ scores of cisgender LGB people and TGNC people. TGNC people endorsed significantly higher depression scores than LGB people (F [1,697] = 4.365; p = .037). However, there were no significant differences between TGNC people and LGB people for RBQ  scores  (F [1,331] = 0.324; p = .570) or ACE scores  (F [1,684] = 0.156; p = .693).

Conclusions

Based on the current study’s findings, it is clear that having an SGM identity increases one’s risk for depression. Moreover, identifying as TGNC confers additional risk for depression, such that TGNC-identifying people had higher rates of depression than LGB people. TGNC people are currently facing a cultural backlash related to their rights and access to medical care (among other things), so it would follow that TGNC people are at a particularly high risk for depression. Implications, limitations, and future directions will be discussed.

50-word abstract: 

Sexual and Gender Minority (SGM) people are at high risk for depression. Participants completed questionnaires on depression, ACE, and bullying. An ANOVA revealed a main effect of SGM status such that those in the SGM group scored higher on depression. Also, TGNC folks had higher depression scores than LGB folks.