Affirming home environments, family and peer support, access to gender-affirming resources, and things that cultivate gender euphoria are important protective factors for LGBTQ+ youth, even as many risk factors are rising, per a new report from an ongoing Trevor Project study of nearly 1,700 LGBTQ+ youth.
Content warning: Mentions of suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-harm.
The Study
The findings come from the latest report of Project SPARK (Studying Protective And RisK factors: A Longitudinal Mental Health and Experiences Study among LGBTQ+ Young People), an initiative to look over time at the mental health, well-being, and lived experiences of 1,689 LGBTQ+ youth ages 13 to 24 across the United States. Participants represent a range of sexual orientations and gender identities, and are also diverse racially and ethnically; 68% are youth of color. (See the report for further demographic details.)
This two-year report represents the first five waves of data collection, based on surveys conducted every six months between September 2023 and March 2026. “By collecting repeated data from the same participants,” the report explains, “the study can examine how mental health trajectories unfold, which risk factors contribute to worsening outcomes, and which protective factors may support resilience and well-being.”
I’m going to share a little of the data below, but I think it’s important first to note what Jaymes Black, CEO of The Trevor Project, said in a statement:
Behind every data point in the Project SPARK report is an LGBTQ+ young person navigating a deeply difficult climate in this country. This two-year study makes it undeniably clear that we cannot let them weather this storm alone.
Harms and Risks
In the two years since the baseline initial survey of the project:
- Anxiety increased from 54% to 63%.
- Depression increased from 43% to 51%.
- Suicidal ideation remained consistently high (38% to 40%).
Many risk factors also increased since the baseline, including economic insecurity and houselessness, being prevented from using a gender-affirming bathroom, and being threatened with or subject to conversion therapy, along with gender identity-based discrimination among transgender, gender-questioning, and nonbinary (TGNB) youth. The effects of those risk factors are clear:
- LGBTQ+ youth exposed to or threatened with conversion therapy had nearly 3x higher odds of suicidal ideation.
- Houselessness was associated with more than 2x higher odds of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
- Gender identity-based victimization was associated with more than 2x higher odds of self-harm and suicidal ideation.
Victimization and discrimination were “some of the strongest and most consistent predictors of poor mental health,” as were barriers to gender affirmation for TGNB participants. Threats of or exposure to conversion therapy were “among the most concerning risk factors, particularly for suicidal ideation.”
Protection and Support
Since the baseline survey, there were also some positive signs:
- Self-harm decreased from 39% to 34%.
- Suicide attempts decreased from 9% to 7%.
Protective factors that increased during that time included the perception of helpful mental health care, access to gender affirming hormones for participants aged 18+, access to tools for gender expression such as binders and clothing, affirming home environments, gender euphoria (a sense of greater gender positivity), and helpline usage.
Again, the impact is clear:
- LGBTQ+ youth who reported family support had 45% lower odds of suicidal ideation and 42% lower odds of self-harm.
- Gender euphoria was associated with 50% lower odds of suicidal ideation and 49% lower odds of depression.
- Transgender and nonbinary youth who said they had changed their identity documents to fit their gender identity reported 45% lower odds of suicidal ideation.
- Hormone access was associated with 38% lower odds of depression among TGNB youth.
During suicidal crises, across the two-year study period, friends were the most commonly reported source of support, followed by (in descending order) mental health professionals, intimate partners, helplines, parents/caregivers/other family, doctors or general practitioners, and religious leaders. Helpline usage during crises rose from 22% to 30%. Nearly a third of participants in crisis, however, sought help from no one. These findings show “the central role of informal and peer-based support,” but also that “many LGBTQ+ young people may be navigating moments of crisis without any safety net.”
Takeaways and Next Steps
Suicide prevention efforts, the report says, “should include reducing victimization and discrimination, protecting young people from conversion therapy, addressing housing instability and unmet basic needs, ensuring gender affirmation for TGNB youth, strengthening family support, and expanding access to affirming care—not only individual-level screening or treatment.”
While “Continued investment in crisis services, peer support, and culturally responsive mental health care is especially important,” the report notes, “these services must be paired with broader efforts to reduce the conditions that place LGBTQ+ young people at risk.”
Support is more than simply the absence of rejection; it appears to actively promote better mental health.
The report emphasizes, too, that “Support is more than simply the absence of rejection; it appears to actively promote better mental health.” In particular, gender euphoria “showed among the strongest protective associations of any factor in the models, suggesting that interventions and environments that actively cultivate gender positivity—not only those that reduce harm—may be especially promising.”
Online spaces also “play an important role in helping young people find understanding and belonging,” though respondents “have become somewhat less comfortable using social media as a source of identity-related support.”
The researchers do note some limitations of their study, such as all measures being self-reported and participants not being nationally representative. They also caution that some LGBTQ+ youth may not have felt safe enough to participate in the study because of the current socio-political climate, so we shouldn’t make point estimates from the data and generalize to all LGBTQ+ youth in the U.S. Instead, they say, “the study is most useful for understanding how risk and protective factors are associated with mental health and suicide-related outcomes over time within this large and diverse longitudinal sample.”
That’s important enough in itself. There’s much more in the full report; I encourage anyone with an interest in LGBTQ+ youth to read it entirely, with all of its methodology, caveats, and explanations. The bottom line is simple though. As Dr. Ronita Nath, vice president of research at The Trevor Project, said in a statement, “This research affirms what we have long known to be true: creating welcoming and supportive environments for LGBTQ+ youth is a life-saving intervention.” She added, “Showing up for LGBTQ+ youth in this moment means addressing the risk factors that lead to harm, while building safe, supportive spaces that allow these young people to fully be themselves.”
The report is: “Project SPARK Two-Year Findings: A Longitudinal Study of Protective and Risk Factors in LGBTQ+ Youth Mental Health (2023-2026).”