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Background
Information on Possible GLB Suicide Problems in Norway: 1995-1999.
A
1997 Conference Paper Addresses the Possibility of GLB Suicide Problems
in Norway.
The Wichstrom & Hegna (2003) Longitudinal Study of Norway Youth.
A
summary of the Hegna et al. (1999) study made available by Kristinn Hegna
(on another web page).
NOVA Report 01/07: Homo?
Betydningen av seksuell erfaring, tiltrekning og identitet for
selvmordsforsøk og rusmiddelbruk blant ungdom. En sosiologisk studie
[Gay? The importance of sexual experience, attraction, and identity for
suicide attempts and substance use among teenagers in Norway. A
sociological study.] By Kristinn Hegna. Kristinn Hegna´s doctoral
thesis from the Institute of Sociology and Social Geography at
University of Oslo. Download Page: http://www.nova.no/index.gan?id=12803&subid=0 - PDF Download: http://www.nova.no/asset/2542/1/2542_1.pdf .
The report is in Norwegian, but four English papers are reproduced at the end of the report. One of the papers is:
Hegna K, Wichstrøm L (2007). Suicide Attempts among Norwegian Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youths General and Specific Risk Factors. Acta Sociologica, 50(1): 21-37. Abstract.
Other papers available are:
Hegna K, Larsen CJ (2007). Straightening out the queer? Same-sex experience and attraction among young people in Norway. Culture, Health and Sexuality, 9(1): 15-30. PubMed Abstract. Excerpts.
Hegna K, Rossow I (2006).
What’s love got to do with it? Substance use and social integration for
young people categorised by homosexual experience and attractions.
Journal of Drug Issues, 37(2).
Hegna K (----). Coming out, coming into what? Identification and risks in the ‘coming out’ story of a Norwegian late adolescent gay man.
Kristinn Hegna: Projects / Paper.
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Background
Information on Possible GLB suicide Problems in Norway: 1995-1999.In 1995, at Calgary's Gay Lines, I met a young gay Norwegian man working for a Swedish telephone manufacturer. Given that he had been involved with a GLB youth group in Oslo, I asked him about the GLB youth suicide problem in his country - after reporting on the situation in North America. He reported homophobia to be a problem as serious in Norway as it was in North America, that coming out problems were similar, and that a significant GLB youth suicide problems existed in his country.This situation was collaborated by Marte Nathalie in a 1999 Web Page titled "Homosexuality".. She reported:
A statistic bureau in Norway recently released a study on the life-quality amongst young people that love someone from the same sex. The results are shocking. One out of four had tried to commit suicide! Half of the people asked didn't dare to tell even their closest friends that they were gay. Many had gone through tough times with their families, some had even been thrown out on the streets when they told they were gay.On the Internet, notice of a paper exploring the potential GLB suicide problem in Norway had become available, but only the abstract was made available. The following was written in this respect:
The possible GLB suicide problem in Norway was addressed (possibly for the first time in 1997) via the paper "The need for developing strategies for suicide prevention among young lesbian women and gay men: empirical and theoretical rationales written on the subject." The paper's abstract was available online - via the Internet Journal of Health Promotion. It is now available at: RHP&EO the electronic journal of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education
Authors: Asle Offerdal (Studenenes psykiske helsetjeneste, Universitetet i..Bergen, Ha-ns Tanksgate 11 N-5028 BERGEN, and Norman Anderssen (Research Center for Health Promotion, University of ' Bergen, Oisteinsgt.3, N-5007 BERGEN.
The Paper was presented at the Conference on the Status of Nordic Health Promotion Research: Progress during the Decade after the Ottawa Charter. - The National Plan for Suicide Prevention 1994-1998: Chapter 3: Homosexuality mentioned without explanations.In 1998, "Suicide and suicide prevention among gays and lesbians" by by Eva Friis was published the Norwegian journal Suicidologi 1998, no. 3. It became available on the Internet by 2001.
In 1998 / 1999, I had asked Richard
Ramsay (Professor, Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary) if he
would communicate a request for relevant information to some Norwegian
contacts he knew in the field of suicidology. The silence in this respect
resulted in this comment:
Remarkably (or maybe not so remarkably), no response was received to the request.
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By
August 2000, however, a contact had been made with Arne Gronningseter via
Professor Ramsay and the following information on gay and lesbian suicide
problem in Norway was made available.The issue of suicide among gay and lesbian youths is quite high on the public agenda for the moment. The reason is that a survey has shown that among young homosexuals there is an overrepresentation of people who have tried to commit suicide. Just a few months ago, one of the main TV channels showed a documentary about a 20-year-old and very religious boy who committed suicide. This film was seen by very many viewers and increased the public attention for these issues. Discussions are now occurring with bishops and church leaders about these issues.This was followed by noting that information related to the NOVA study of gay and lesbian Norwegian individuals was available at their Web Site: http://www.isaf.no/NOVA/english/english.htm . He offered to translate some relevant information which is given in the next section.
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The
Arne Gronningseter's Report on the Norwegian GLB Suicidality Study by Hegna
et al. (1999).|
One or More |
Years |
Years |
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Years |
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(Females) |
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Source: Hegna, K., H.W. Kristiansen
and B. Mosen (1999)
Levekår og livskvalitet
blant lesbiske kvinner og homofile menn.
NOVA Report 1/1999.
Sixteen percent (16 %) of the
male respondents have tried to commit suicide at least once and 20 % of
the women has tried to commit suicide a least once.
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Figure in parentheses: N<20
The percentages of gays/lesbians
are as much as
6 to 7 times as high as in the
general population.
Summary comment with respect to the Hegna et al (1999) study of Norwegian gay and lesbian individuals:
Those who have tried to commit suicide gives mainly four reasons:
Many
Thanks to Arne Gronningseter for the information supplied above. Follow
this link for a summary of the Hegna et al. (1999) Study supplied by Kristinn
Hegna in June, 2001.
GLB and Suicide Prevention (September,
2002)
English Summary of Strategies
& Actions (PDF
Download)
Data were collected through the national survey ‘Living conditions and quality of life among lesbians and gay men in Norway’, a study aimed at describing the lives of gay men and lesbians of all age groups (Hegna et al., 1999)... (age 15–25, mean age 21.7 years, SD = 2.43) ... Eighty per cent of the respondents considered themselves to be gay or lesbian, 7.5 per cent bisexual. Respondents who indicated a homosexual orientation with elements of heterosexuality (9.1 per cent), a heterosexual orientation with elements of homosexuality (2.0 per cent) or who were unsure (1.4 per cent) were also included in the subsample, since many young people do not consider themselves to have a sexual identity as gay/lesbian during the transitional period of ‘coming out’ (Herdt and Boxer, 1993)...
Twenty-six per cent of the adolescents and young adults in the sample had tried to take their own life at least once during their lifetime; 17.1 per cent had one attempt and 8.9 per cent hadseveral attempts behind them. There was no difference between male (25.8 per cent) and female (26.3 per cent) respondents... The majority (54.1 per cent) of attempts had been made after or during the year of homosexual debut, and an additional 12.2 per cent had been made during the year before sexual debut...
Attempted suicide was predicted by a set of risk factors not specific to GLB youth in the multivariate model: Infrequent contact with parents, internalizing problems (anxiety/depression), regular smoking and experiences of threats and physical violence. In the multivariate analysis, high self-esteem was negatively associated with attempted suicide. However, in addition to the general risk factors is a set of risk factors specific to GLB youth’s life situation added to the model fitness, that is low age of heterosexual debut, being in a heterosexual relationship, coming out before 19 years of age and in particular coming out before 15 years of age, infrequent contact with heterosexual friends and having told all or no heterosexual friends about one’s sexual orientation. From a general point of view, the findings confirm that psychological factors like depression and low self-esteem, as well as social life style and social integration issues, are important. In addition, these findings seem to reflect a pattern of early and troublesome identity formation even among GLB youths at the end of the 1990s.
Friis,
Eva: Suicide
and suicide prevention among gays and lesbians (First published in
the Norwegian journal Suicidologi 1998, no. 3.) PDF Download.
The Wichstrom & Hegna (2003) Longitudinal Study of Norway Youth.
| Youth "Attempted Suicide" Risks: Norway Homosexually Oriented Youth |
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| Study |
Sample Size (N) GLB |
Compa- rison Group |
Attempted Suicide Incidence |
Sampling Information Age Odds Ratio (95% CI) |
| Wichstrom & Hegna (2003) |
6.5% (MF*) 7.0%(F) 5.7% (M) Same-Sex Sexual Contact, Ever |
93.5% No Same-Sex Sexual Contact, Ever |
15.4% vs. 3.6% Lifetime RR: 4.3 |
108 Attempters = 4.4%, N = 2,460 (In Regression Model) OR = 4.7 (3.1, 7.3), No Controls. OR = 4.3 (2.1, 5.6), With 6 Controls Variables |
| 20.9% (F) 8.6% (M) Some Same -Sex Sexual Attraction |
-- |
9.1% vs. 3.6% Lifetime RR: 2.5 |
ORs not Generated |
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| 13.5% (F) 8.9% (M) Some GLB Identity |
-- |
9.1% vs.3.6% Lifetime RR: 2.5 |
ORs not Generated | |
| 7.0% (F) Same-Sex Sexual Contact, Ever |
93.0% No Same-Sex Sexual Contact, Ever |
19.4% vs. 4.2% From T-2 to T-3 ** RR: 4.6 |
N = 1,327 Females *** Predicting Suicide Attempt from 1994 to 1999: OR = 5.9 (3.2, 10.8), No Controls. OR = 5,0 (2.3, 10.6), 3 Controls |
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| Wichstrom (2009) |
(M) (F) Non-Heterosexual Sexual Interests At Time 1 |
(M) (F) No Same-Sex Sexual Interests Reported At Time 1 |
(M) (F) Attempted Suicide From T1 to T2 |
OR = 6.8 (3.7, 12.5) With Control Variables. See Below. |
| Same
Longitudinal Student Survey: In Multivariate Nominal Regression,
students who had reported having had same-sex-sexual contacts before T1
or had been aware of their same-sex sexual interest before T1 were
classified as having non-heterosexual sexual interest... and this
category produced the strongest predictors (not including NSSI &
Attempting Suicide at Time 1) for Non-suicidal Self-Injury (NSSI) [OR:
4.06, 1.95 - 8.47] and Attempting Suicide [OR: 6.81, 3.70 - 12.55] from
Time 1 to Time 2. |
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* M = Males - F = Females
** Longitudinal Study, 3 Questionnaires from T-1 to T3: 1992
(T-1): 12,287 students, Grades 7 - 12. - 1994 (T-2): 9,679 students,
Grade 9 - 12+. - 1999 (T-3): 2,924 Youth.. - Mean Ages: 14.9 years (SD:
1.7, T-1) to 16.5 years (SD: 1.9, T-2) to 22.1 years (SD: 1.9, T-3).*** No Homo-Sex male suicide attempters from 1994 to 1999. Comparing the N's in both regression models reveals that there are only about 1,133 males (2460 - 1,327) available for analysis. Responders to "Attempted Suicide" and "Same-Sex Sex" questions: Males = 1,239; Females = 1,567: Total = 2,806, but the numbers are lower in regression analyses due to non-reponses to other variables: 1,133 and 1,327 (Total = 2,460), respectively. Is An Estimate of the Percentage of Suicide Attempters Who are Homo-Sex Males Possible? Maybe not possible to calculate given the data supplied by the authors. Males & Females Reporting Homo-Sex, Ever: 2,806 X 6.5% = 182. For Females: 1,567 X 7.0% = 109.7 = 100. For Males: 1,239 X 5.7% = 70.6 = 71. Homo-Sex Males & Females Who Attempted Suicide: 182 X 15.4% = 28 Suicide Attempters. Homo-Sex Females Who Attempted Suicide from T-2 to T-3: 110 X 19.4% = 21 Suicide Attempters. This would mean that only a maximum of 7 Homo-Sex male suicide attempters could exist up to T-2, the number likely being less. Furthermore, it would seem that the great majority of Homo-Sex females who attempted suicide between T-2 and T-3 (All? Almost All?) are repeat suicide attempters. Assuming "All", this would mean that there are 7 Homo-Sex male suicide attempters, for an "Attempted Suicide" Incidence of 9.9% (7 / 71), all having occurred up to T-2. Unfortunately, the authors did not report any "Attempted Suicide" results specific to Homo-Sex males, other males, or all males up to T-2. The lifetime "Attempted Suicide" incidence for males is 2.2%; 1.6% for Non-Homo-Sex males from T-2 to T-3. |
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Comparative
Survey of the legal and social situation of homosexuals in Europe (latest
edition, 1998). - European
GLB Legal/Rights Information. - Social exclusion of young lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Europe. (106 page 2006 report vy Judit Takács: PDF Download).
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