d had a variety of social supports, mostly within the lesbian community. However, few had come out to all family members and coworkers. Level of openness about lesbianism was associated with less fear of exposure and with more choices about mental health counseling.
The high rates of attempted suicide and serious consideration of suicide that is present in the general lesbian population is also present in the specific population subset of young lesbian and gay people. This can be seen in a report for Catholic Social Services in Rock Island, Illinois, prepared by Proctor and Groze (1994) who examined risk factors for suicide among gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths.
The study was based on existing literature indicating a higher suicide rate among these youth groups than among heterosexual groups. Subjects in the study were 221 self-identified gay, lesbian, and bisexual youths (mean age 18.5 years) who attended youth groups across the United States and Canada. All of the young people in the study were given the Adolescent Health Questionnaire, which assessed family issues, social environment, and self-perceptions.
Findings revealed that 40.3 percent of the youths questioned had attempted suicide, and 25.8 percent had seriously considered suicide. The 33.9 percent of the sample who had neither made a suicide attempt nor thought about it seriously possessed internal and external qualities that enabled them to cope well in the face of discrimination, loneliness, and isolation. These youths, with their higher-functioning support systems and better coping skills were able to use those systems instead of considering suicide.
In another study of the suicide risk among homosexual youth D'Augelli and Hershberger (1993) studied 194 lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth (aged 15 21 years) who attended programs in 14 community centers. The purposes of the study were to determine the personal challenges they faced due to their s...