url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr1vRnkGoSY

Saewyc, Elizabeth. (2014, October). Making It Better: What Helps Lower Odds of Suicidality Among Gay and Bisexual Adolescent Boys? Presented at the Gay Men's Health Summit, Vancouver, Canada. Research is beginning to identify the risk factors that help explain the higher risk for suicidal thoughts and attempts among gay and bisexual boys and men, and who is at greater risk among gay and bisexual populations. Some studies that have also begun to document potential protective factors that appear to reduce the disparities. So how do we make it better? Drawing on research using the province-wide BC Adolescent Health Survey, we have identified key protective factors in family and school relationships that lower the probability of suicidal thoughts and attempts, even among gay and bisexual boys who are exposed to risk factors such as violence. We have also identified the extent to which school-based gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and LGBTQ-supportive policies in schools, contribute to lower odds of discrimination, suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts for gay and bisexual boys in schools across British Columbia, but primarily when they have been in place long enough to influence the wider school environment. Identifying protective factors, as well as interventions that may actually promote those protective factors, may help narrow the gap in suicide between sexual minority youth and their heterosexual peers.

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