In recent years, much has been documented about the state of mental health among LGBTQ+ young people. From high rates of suicidal ideation to concerns over the recent wave of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in states across the country, now is a particularly fraught time for the mental health and well-being of queer and trans youth in the United States.
The survey offers a window into how young people’s mental health and responses to the stresses around them can affect their self-perceptions and sense of where they fit in the world. Experts say they also offer pathways for ways in which adults, guardians, and allies in these young people’s lives can best support them.
The Trevor Project found that 59% of younger individuals (those from ages 13 to 17) believed they had a high likelihood of living to age 35, compared to 73% of their older peers (18 to 24-year-olds).
Those who identified as multisexual (or bisexual, pansexual, or queer, for example) reported a likelihood of living to 35 at 63%, which was lower compared to monosexual young people (lesbian or gay people, for example) at 68%.
The survey also took a look at how these young people examined their purpose in life and how that ties directly back to their mental health.
The Trevor Project survey showed that LGBTQ+ young people self-reported low rates of “life purpose” in areas that included “feeling enough purpose in life, finding life activities worthwhile, believing their activities are important, valuing their life activities, caring about their activities, and having many reasons to live.”
Read more at Healthline.com.
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