Depressive Symptoms and Suicidal Ideation in Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescent: The Moderating Roles of Social Reward Responsiveness and Social Support

Abstract

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth are at increased risk of depression and suicidal ideation (SI), due in part to exposure to discrimination. This raises questions about social factors that may increase risk or resilience to stressors commonly faced by SGM youth. The goal of this multimethod study was to examine both neural processing of social feedback and perceived social support as potential moderators of the association between SGM identity, depressive symptoms, and SI in adolescents. For this study, 165 adolescents aged 14-17 (22.42% identifying as SGM) were oversampled for current depression. Participants self-reported social support, depressive symptoms and SI. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded while participants completed a computerized peer interaction task in which the reward positivity (RewP) component was measured in response to social acceptance vs. rejection feedback. SGM youth reported lower social support, elevated depressive symptoms and SI compared to non-SGM youth. Social RewP moderated the associations between SGM identity, depressive symptoms, and SI, such that SGM youth with blunted neural responses to social acceptance had the greatest symptoms. In contrast, high levels of social support were protective in the association between SGM identity and SI but not depressive symptoms. This is among the first studies to use affective neuroscience methods to examine social processes in SGM youth and our findings underscore the role of social factors in SGM youth mental health.