Jordan Arntz

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if discordance between how a parent and child report the child’s sexual and/or gender identity status is a predictor of mental health outcomes. 

Method: The analyses focused on a subsample of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Participants included youth identifying as a sexual or gender minority at any time in the study and were aged 9-10-years old at baseline (n = 1489). Cross-sectional analyses focused on data from year one, and longitudinal analyses focused on data from year one to year two. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were the dependent variables in linear regression analysis and suicidal ideation was the dependent variable in logistic regression analysis. The predictor in Aim 1 linear and logistic regression analysis was concordant (both yes, both no) and discordant (parent yes/child no, parent no/child yes) groups. In Aim 2, the “both yes” group was set as a reference comparing the three other groups. In Aim 2, the only change was adding parental support as a primary predictor. Sex was a covariate in all three analyses. 

Results: When comparing only the two group concordant and discordant groups, there were no significant differences in mental health outcomes. But in the four group model, there were significant differences in various scenarios of reporting internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and suicidal ideation. Still, those in the concordant both-yes group were found to experience a higher likelihood of poor mental health outcomes. 

Conclusions: Previous literature emphasizes the importance of familial support in children’s developmental growth. LGBTQ+ children experience worsened health outcomes, as supported by the results. In future directions, other protective factors for LGBTQ+ youth should be included to gain specific insight to experiences contributing towards minority stress.