Sexual and gender minority youth in Canada: An investigation of disparities in positive mental health
Sonia Hajo, Colin A. Capaldi, Li Liu

TL;DR
This study finds that sexual and gender minority youth in Canada report lower positive mental health compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers.
Contribution
The study provides new evidence on positive mental health disparities among 2SLGBTQ+ youth in Canada.
Findings
Sexual minority youth reported lower life satisfaction and mental health compared to heterosexual youth.
Youth attracted to both genders showed more consistent disparities than those attracted to the same gender.
Gender minority youth also reported lower well-being than cisgender youth.
Abstract
While studies indicate that 2SLGBTQ + youth are more likely to experience negative psychological outcomes compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers, less is known about the positive mental health (PMH) of 2SLGBTQ + youth in Canada. To fill this gap, we investigated disparities in PMH by self-reported sexual attraction among 15‒17-year-olds and gender modality among 12‒17-year-olds. We analyzed data from youth respondents in the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth. We obtained estimates of average life satisfaction and high self-rated mental health, happiness, autonomy, competence, and relatedness for youth with an exclusively heterosexual attraction and youth with a minority sexual attraction (those exclusively attracted to the same gender, and those attracted to both females and males), and for cisgender and gender minority youth. Regression analyses were…
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Taxonomy
TopicsLGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Adolescent and Pediatric Healthcare · Gender Roles and Identity Studies
