Sexual Minority Women Experience Heightened Substance Use Risk at Early Age

Research demonstrating that young women identifying as sexual minorities experience an increased risk of substance abuse as early as age 13 calls attention to the pressing need for effective early interventions for this group, an Oregon State University researcher tells Addiction Professional.

“Right now there is very little in terms of empirically supported interventions,” says Sarah Dermody, assistant professor at the university's School of Psychological Science and lead author of a study published in the Journal of LGBT Youth. “We have accumulated enough evidence to show that these are important issues.”

Dermody's study explored data from around 2,200 participants in the Pittsburgh Girls Study, which looks at the lives of girls in an urban area. She and colleagues examined substance use patterns among young women from the ages of 13 to 20, comparing results for heterosexual women and those who identified as sexual minorities (either identifying as anything other than heterosexual or reporting same-sex attraction or behavior).

The researchers found that disparities in substance use between sexual minority and heterosexual girls were apparent by age 13, and persisted and continued to widen into the early 20s. Dermody says the appearance of a disparity as early as age 13 is somewhat surprising, given that 14 is the typical age at which youths tend to come out as gay/lesbian.

The researchers reported that the odds of substance use in young women identifying as sexual minorities are 400% higher than for their heterosexual counterparts.

Effects of trauma

Dermody explains that this study did not explore the causes of the differences in substance use patterns between heterosexual and sexual minority women. Past research, however, has pointed to sexual minority youths' vulnerability to stressors such as stigmatization and discrimination. Negative behaviors such as substance use become a coping strategy in the face of this, she says.

Research has shown that the disparity in substance use between sexual minority and heterosexual youth is more pronounced in females than in males. Dermody says the reason for this remains unknown, but one theory holds that girls are more susceptible to certain issues that lead to drug-using behavior, such as depression.

She adds that many youths who identify as sexual minorities have been shown to experience victimization even before coming out, as they are more likely to have experienced traumatic events such as neglect and sexual or verbal abuse.

Dermody said in an Oregon State news release about the findings on sexual minority females, “This is a subgroup that we are concerned about. In future research, it would be useful to explore how individual youths' experiences influence where they fall on the spectrum of substance use.”