How Gay–Straight Alliance Groups Mitigate the Relationship Between Gay-Bias Victimization and Adolescent Suicide Attempts

Abstract

We examined the relationships between victimization from being bullied, suicide, hopelessness, and the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) on a school campus. We analyzed data from the California Healthy Kids Survey from 2005 to 2007 using hierarchical modeling. We found that gay-bias (versus non-gay-bias) victimization is meaningfully connected with the inwardly destructive behavior of attempted suicide among adolescents. We also found that hopelessness helps explain associations between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts and that the presence of a GSA club on a school's campus attenuates significant connections between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts by reducing hopelessness. Gay-bias victims are more likely than other victims to attempt suicide while also feeling more hopeless. The presence of a GSA on campus may help to reduce the attempted suicide and hopelessness associated with gay-bias victimization.