Association of Updating Identification Documents with Suicidal Ideation and Attempts among Transgender and Nonbinary Youth

Abstract

This study examines the association of access to concordant identity documents with attempting suicide in the last year among transgender and nonbinary youth. Data came from 6581 transgender and nonbinary youth who completed an online survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) youth ages 13–24 residing in the United States. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the adjusted odds of attempting suicide in the past year based on whether or not youth were able to change their identification documents. Both wanting to update one’s documents but not being able to (aOR = 2.04, CI = 1.412–2.95; p < 0.001) and being able to update one’s documents but not having done so (aOR = 1.74, CI = 1.22–2.50; p < 0.001) were associated with greater odds of attempting suicide in the last year, compared to youth who had changed their documents. Revising the way gender is captured on legal documents may be an efficacious public health intervention to reduce suicide risk among transgender and nonbinary youth.