LGBTQ in Youth: A Narrative Review

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning youth have experienced stigma in the form of stressors including rejection by parents and peers, discrimination, harassment and violence. The prevalence has ranged from 18% to 67% in different samples. The disparities they have experienced include sexual and mental health, substance use and suicide risk. Since they spend much of their time in school, gay straight alliances have been created and have helped reduce these problems. Despite the limitations of this recent literature, the research highlights the ongoing problems of LGBTQ youth and the need for continuing research and interventions. This narrative review involved entering the terms LGBTQ and youth into PubMed and PsycINFO. The search yielded 541 papers for the last five years. However, following exclusion criteria including case studies and non-English papers, this review is a summary of the research reported in 66 papers. The recent literature on LGBTQ and youth is predominantly focused on negative effects of belonging to a sexual or gender minority group along with some studies on comorbidities, buffers and interventions. This narrative review is accordingly divided into sections on prevalence, effects/ correlates, comorbidities, buffers and interventions.