With rising suicide rates and evidence pilling up on dangers of excessive social-media use, 91亚色 researcher in mattering and 鈥榓nti-mattering,鈥� says letting adolescents know they matter is more important than ever

TORONTO, May 29, 2024 鈥� Youth suicide is a growing concern in Canada, the U.S., and around the world, with some research suggesting this might be linked with excessive social media use in vulnerable teens. With Mental Health Awareness Month closing out this week, 91亚色 Psychology says he was motivated by a growing sense of alarm and frustration when undertaking a review of studies on mattering and youth suicide .

Mattering is feeling significant in the eyes of other people, which is further linked to feeling that people are noticing you and keeping track of you, and that you are contributing to other people鈥檚 lives. 鈥淎nti-mattering,鈥� a term coined by Flett to describe the feeling of not mattering, is the opposite: feeling unseen, unheard, and unimportant to others.

鈥淚t's shocking how many indicators there are of an increased problem with young people, including a study that was done in Canada, based on pandemic data last year,鈥� says Flett, Canada Research Chair in Personality and Health. 鈥淣o matter how you measure it, if you're feeling a sense of mattering, you're less likely to have suicidal ideation, less likely to have a plan less likely to have an actual attempt. But if you feel like you don't matter, it goes the other way.鈥�

The paper, just published in the new journal Child Protection and Practice, is the first to review the scientific literature on youth suicide and mattering.  Flett took a look at the situation for younger people after seeing the benefits in his recent research on mattering and suicidality among university students.  For this article, he examined a dozen studies and found mattering to be central to protection against youth suicide, and the feeling of not mattering to be a central risk.

Flett says one reason for growing rates of youth suicide might be linked social media, with new research by Flett and colleagues linking excessive social media with fears and feelings of not mattering in youth. Negative interactions online or not feeling seen or heard might be extra risk factors for youth who are already vulnerable, although Flett says the feeling of mattering acts as a shield.

鈥淲e now have data confirming that both anti-mattering and fear of not mattering are linked with elevated social-media addiction scores. Youth characterized jointly by social-media addiction and anti-mattering will be quite vulnerable,鈥� says Flett. 鈥淗owever, people who are high in mattering are more interpersonally resilient. So if they get slagged online, for instance, they're not going to take it to heart as opposed to the person who will internalize.鈥�

Some of the research on youth goes back decades and given the strong evidence, he argues the concept of mattering should become key to suicide-prevention policy.

Flett says that while 鈥淵ou Matter鈥� is a popular slogan in the U.S., the way our mental-health system operates can often send the opposite message to those who are seeking help. 鈥淚f you're a youth and you've actually taken the brave step of saying, 鈥楬ey, I've been having these thoughts, I need help鈥� and then you can't get treatment or even an assessment in a timely manner, it's like, 鈥榃ell, here's some evidence, again, that I don't matter as much as I should.鈥�

While mattering is often confused with other concepts such as self-esteem or belonging 鈥� even in some of the literature Flett has reviewed 鈥� he says mattering is neither, and is robustly protective over and above many other factors.

鈥淲hile they are correlated, self esteem is essentially feeling like you're a likable person, sometimes in terms of talent, and getting things done, but mattering is the feeling that others essentially care about you,鈥� explains Flett. 鈥淎nd you can be part of a group, but it doesn't mean you'll be recognized or valued within the group. It can feel worse in a way if you belong but don鈥檛 matter.鈥�

While mattering matters for everyone, Flett says some youth, especially racialized, LGBTQ+ and those with difficult family situations and living in poverty, need to hear this message more.

In the U.S, there has been an estimated increase of suicide rates by almost four per cent annually among males between 2009-2020 and almost seven per cent among females between 2007 and 2017. While there are no definitive studies for the most recent years for Canada as a whole, Manitoba reports a 42 per cent increase in youth suicides for 2022-2023 versus the previous reporting period, and the Saskatchewan Advocate for Children and Youth鈥檚 office saw three times as many suicide attempts by young people in care versus the previous year.

For parents or others interacting with youth, Flett says spending time with them, listening to them and validating their feelings will help youth feel as if they matter.

Flett鈥檚 top advice: Show them they matter. Show them you care.

鈥淏ottom line is, if somebody knows that they matter to someone they care about, then they have a reason to not do something that's risky towards themselves. And then they can internalize that message, to start to matter to themselves.鈥�

About 91亚色

91亚色 is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. 91亚色鈥檚 fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario鈥檚 Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. 91亚色鈥檚 campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.

Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, 91亚色 Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca

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The post 91亚色 research shows bisexual women are at higher risk of suicide attempts appeared first on News@91亚色.

Toronto, ON, June 7, 2023 鈥� Women who identify as bisexual were more than three times more likely to attempt suicide compared to heterosexual women, by a group of researchers at 91亚色 and ICES published online today.

The research, which is the first to link population-based survey data with health records for over 123,000 individuals, also found that gay men and gay women/lesbians were twice as likely to attempt suicide, both fatal and non-fatal, which the team refers to as a suicide-related behaviour (SRB) event, compared to heterosexual individuals. The findings point to an urgent need for better mental health supports within the LGBTQ+ community.

鈥淲e wanted to better characterize the disparity in suicide-related behaviours across sexual orientations and gender,鈥� says lead author , a Faculty of Health assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Population Health Data Science at 91亚色 and adjunct scientist at ICES. 鈥淧rior research on suicide attempts has mostly relied on self-reported data from surveys, which means we don鈥檛 have information on people who are too sick to participate or have died by suicide.鈥�

Published in the , the study looked at Ontario participants from the Canadian Community Health Survey, which was linked to anonymous administrative health data such as emergency room visits or hospitalizations for non-fatal self-harm and fatal suicide events between 2002 and 2019.

The researchers, who include 91亚色 postdoctoral fellows Gabriel John Dusing and Chungah Kim, found:

• Overall prevalence of one or more SRB events was around two per cent in heterosexual individuals, five per cent in gay/lesbian individuals, and eight per cent in bisexual individuals.
• Sexual minority individuals were at higher risk of SRB events, ranging from 2.10 to 4.23 times more likely when compared to heterosexual people.
• After adjusting for age and gender, the risk of a SRB event was more than three times greater among bisexual individuals, and this risk was most pronounced for bisexual women.

鈥淭he higher risk for bisexual women could be attributed to greater discrimination that bisexual people face within the LGBTQ+ community, as well as higher rates of violence, trauma, and caregiving burden that bisexual women may experience in opposite-sex relationships,鈥� says Chum.

One limitation of the study is that data were not available for non-binary individuals and sexual orientations such as asexual and queer. Nevertheless, this was the first study to use a large representative sample linked with medical records, which improves the generalizability of the findings for other regions and populations.

鈥淭he study shows a clear need for better funding, policy and programming to address LGBTQ+ suicide risk,鈥� says Chum. 鈥淲e also need increased training for healthcare workers to address LGBTQ+ suicide risk. Further, we want to encourage hospitals and clinics to collect sexual orientation data as part of routine patient care.鈥�

Chum also notes the increasing creep of healthcare privatization and that publicly funded mental health supports need to be increased not just for LGBTQ+ people, but across the board.

The findings align with the authors鈥� published in March in PLOS One, which found that both sexual minority status and residing in under-resourced neighbourhoods with poor access to healthcare, were independent risk factors for suicide-related behaviours. Future research needs to explore interventions that improve the mental health of LGBTQ+ people while addressing social determinants of health, such as neighbourhood-level disparities and barriers to healthcare.

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