Same-sex-attracted adolescents in rural Australia: stressors, depression and suicidality, and barriers to seeking mental health support.

CONCLUSIONS: Adolescents who identified as being same-sex attracted are at much greater risk of depression and suicidality than other adolescents in rural South Australia. The finding that same-sex attracted adolescents experienced a higher number of relationship stressors, bullying and assault underscores the need for more focus on addressing these issues for this group of vulnerable adolescents. While same-sex attracted adolescents did not perceive more barriers to seeking mental health support, greater understanding of same-sex attracted adolescents' access to appropriate services in rural areas is needed to be able to improve mental health functioning in this population. In addition, addressing the wider issues (eg stigma) contributing to the greater number of stressors, including victimisation, faced by same-sex attracted adolescents should be a priority. PMID: 30056736 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Rural and Remote Health - Category: Rural Health Tags: Rural Remote Health Source Type: research