Bullying and comorbid psychological distress, self-harm and attempted suicide in adolescents – Health inequalities by sexual identity

Abstract In a nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 17 (N=9,767, female:51%, sexual minority:20%), we examined associations between sexual identity and risk for self-reported comorbid mental-health (MH) conditions (psychological distress, self-harm, and attempted suicide). We further examined whether sexual minority adolescents with past experiences of bullying (at ages 11/14) were more likely to report comorbid-MH compared to peers without bullying. Bisexual (RRR:9.42, 95% CI: 6.53-13.58) and gay/lesbian (RRR:6.33, 3.52-11.47) adolescents had higher risk for MH-comorbidity than heterosexual peers. However, sexual minority adolescents (15%) with past bullying were more likely to have MH-comorbidity compared to sexual minority (4%) and heterosexual (2%) peers without bullying.