Coping Styles and Suicide in Racially and Ethnically Diverse Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women.

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether coping strategies are associated with past suicidal ideation and history of suicide attempts among sexual minority women (SMW). Participants were 150 racially and ethnically diverse lesbian, bisexual, queer, or "other" nonheterosexual-identified cisgender women who were recruited as part of a national online survey on the experiences of SMW. Simultaneous multiple regressions suggested that coping styles significantly explained 20.3% of the variance in past suicidal ideation and 30.4% of the variance in lifetime history of suicide attempts. Within these regressions, self-blame coping positively predicted past suicidal ideation, and religious coping and venting coping were associated with a higher lifetime history of suicide attempts. Based on these findings, directions for future research and interventions to reduce suicide risk among SMW are discussed.