The Experience of Sexual Stigma and the Increased Risk of Attempted Suicide in Young Brazilian People from Low Socioeconomic Group

Angelo Brandelli Costa, Andrew Pasley, Wagner de Lara Machado, Ernesto Alvarado, Luciana Dutra-Thomé, Silvia Helena Koller

This study was intended to analyze the intersection of experience of sexual stigma low-socioeconomic status, and suicide attempt amongst young Brazilians (11-24 years old). In each of the data collection periods (2004-2006: n = 7185; 2010-2012: n = 2734), participants completed a questionnaire-based instrument. Network analysis provided support for a Minority Stress Model, oriented around whether participants had experienced sexual stigma. Although suicide attempts decreased by 20% for participants who had not experienced sexual stigma, there was a 60% increase for those who had experienced sexual stigma. Of particular note were the increases in rates of reported community and familial physical assault, molestation, and rape for those who had experienced sexual stigma. An analysis of centrality statistics demonstrated that both experiences of this Minority Stress Model were fundamentally different, and that those disparities increased over the time frame observed in this study. At the center of this model, shortest paths statistics exhibited a direct conditioned connection between experiencing sexual stigma and suicide attempts. We discuss the social and historical contexts that contributed to these dynamics, and emphasize the need for policy change.