Suicide thought and behaviors, non-suicidal self-injury, and perceived life stress among sexual minority Mexican college students

Abstract

Background: Sexual minority college students are at a higher risk for suicidal thoughts and self-injurious behaviors compared to heterosexual students. Minority stress theory proposes sexual minority individuals experience higher stress due to stigma. Using a sample of Mexican college students, this study tested perceived life stress as a mediator of suicide and self-injury outcomes across various sexual orientation groups.

Methods: The sample of college students (N=7882) was recruited from nine Mexican universities as part of the WHO World Mental Health International College Student (WMH-ICS) initiative. Participants completed an online survey including demographic questions, measure of perceived life stress, suicide outcomes, and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in the past 12 months.

Results: Logistic regression analyses revealed identifying as a sexual minority significantly predicted a higher likelihood of suicide ideation (ORs 2.05-3.00), suicide attempts (ORs 2.48-8.73), and NSSI (ORs 2.92-4.18) compared to heterosexual students reporting no same-gender attraction. Significant indirect effects from mediation path analyses showed perceived life stress mediated the relationship between a sexual minority identity and suicide ideation (range of proportion mediated 10.48-31.48%), attempts (10.48-31.48%), and NSSI (7.69-20.09%) across each group except among asexual students.

Limitations: The cross-sectional nature of the survey design precludes drawing causal inferences.

Conclusion: Findings from this study contribute to minority stress theory by elucidating the role of perceived life stress as a mediator of suicide ideation and attempts and NSSI among sexual minority college students. Clinical interventions may benefit in focusing on experiences of stress across various life areas when supporting sexual minority college students.

Keywords: Mexico; college; self-injury; sexual minority; suicide.

Figure 1.

Mediation path analyses between sexual minority identity, perceived life stress, and 12M suicide ideation: coefficients from path analyses shown where reference group was heterosexual students with no same-sex attraction. Coefficient between sexual identity and 12M suicide ideation is adjusted for perceived life stress (c’). Coefficients are unstandardized and adjusted for gender, parental education, age, type of institution, religious preference. All estimations are weighted. Hetero SGA = Heterosexual with same-gender attraction; 12M = 12 months. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, *** p < .001.

Figure 2.

Mediation path analyses between sexual minority identity, perceived life stress, and 12M suicide attempt: coefficients from path analyses shown where reference group was heterosexual students with no same-sex attraction. Coefficient between sexual identity and 12M suicide attempt is adjusted for perceived life stress (c’). Coefficients are unstandardized and adjusted for gender, parental education, age, type of institution, religious preference. All estimations are weighted. Hetero SGA = Heterosexual with same-gender attraction; 12M = 12 months. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, *** p < .001.; +++ = Unable to estimate due to zero occurrences.

Figure 3.

Mediation path analyses between sexual minority identity, perceived life stress, and 12M NSSI: coefficients from path analyses shown where reference group was heterosexual students with no same-sex attraction. Coefficient between sexual identity and 12M NSSI is adjusted for perceived life stress (c’). Coefficients are unstandardized and adjusted for gender, parental education, age, type of institution, religious preference. All estimations are weighted. Hetero SGA = Heterosexual with same-gender attraction; 12M = 12 months; NSSI = non-suicidal self-injury. Note. *p < .05, **p < .01, *** p < .001.