{"doi":"10.1002/mhs2.70025","title":"Integrating a Strengths‐Based Intersectional Approach to the Study of Suicide Risk Among Black Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Questioning Youth","abstract":"Suicide among Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ + ) youth constitutes a significant public health concern (Congressional Black Caucus 2019). Research shows 44% of Black LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered suicide and 16% attempted suicide during the previous 12 months, compared to 37% and 11%, respectively, of White LGBTQ+ youth (The Trevor Project 2023). Black LGBTQ+ youth are 5.8 times more likely than Black cisgender heterosexual youth to report suicidal ideation and behavior (henceforth suicidality) (Mereish et al. 2019). Further, Black youth may underreport suicidality due to a lack of culturally valid suicide risk assessment tools (Francois et al. 2025), thus, rates may be higher than they appear using existing tools. Given this population's heightened risk for suicide, researchers must identify risk and protective factors associated with increasing and decreasing suicidality among Black LGBTQ+ youth using an intersectional lens (Price-Feeney et al. 2020). Intersectionality represents a conceptual framework introduced by Black feminist scholars to understand and examine interlocking, structural-level systems of power and oppression (e.g., systems of heterosexism, cisgenderism, racism) as they collectively shape individuals’ lived experiences and patterns of health inequities (Abrams et al. 2020; Collins and Bilge 2020; Combahee River Collective 1977; Crenshaw 1989). Within an intersectionality framework, an intersectional methodological research approach considers distinct ways marginalized social positions work together relationally in connection with systems of power for different groups to understand and address health inequities among specific populations (Bowleg and Bauer 2016; Gardner et al. 2025; McCall 2005). For example, Black LGBTQ+ youth may experience multiple intersectional systems of oppression (e.g., racism and heterosexism/cisgenderism) and forms of discrimination (e.g., racist bigotry and homophobia/transphobia) that elevate their risk for suicide (Balsam et al. 2011; Opara et al. 2020). An intersectional approach also can demonstrate Black LGBTQ+ youth's capacity to become empowered by holding multiple minoritized social positions, feel strengthened to advocate for themselves and their communities, and experience identity harmony, self-acceptance, and empathy (Bowleg 2013; Ghabrial 2017, 2019; Ghabrial and Andersen 2023). Strengths-based intersectional research with Black LGBTQ+ youth can show how holding multiple minoritized positions may serve an adaptive role by allowing youth to shift identities and glean diverse external supports to better address their current needs (Pittinsky et al. 1999), mitigating suicide risk. Thus, to understand the complex nature of suicide among Black LGBTQ+ youth, researchers must utilize an intersectional methodological approach informed by an intersectionality framework that considers intracategorical (within group) and intercategorical (between group) complexity within sampling designs (McCall 2005), measurement of intersectional risk and protective factors (e.g., intersectional survey/interview questions, state-level equality indices), intersectional data analytic approaches, and interpretation of study findings within an intersectionality framework. We propose an integrated causal model of suicide risk that incorporates an intersectional methodological approach into established suicide risk theories (see Figure 1). Projects integrating the Minority Stress Theory (Brooks 1981; Meyer 2003) and suicide-related theories utilizing an intersectional approach could advance research and understanding of suicidality among Black LGBTQ+ youth. Studying effects of intersectional minority stressors is new to suicide research, where most studies examine single-position minority stressors or additive models of risk (Mallory and Russell 2021). For Black LGBTQ+ youth, holding multiple minoritized social positions may intensify the minority-based s","journal":"Mental Health Science","year":2025,"id":569329,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9575,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":824260,"name":"Jennifer J. Muehlenkamp","orcid":"0000-0003-2653-082X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1474247,"name":"Myeshia N. Price","orcid":"0000-0003-4738-2248","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1474248,"name":"Tiffany M. Eden","orcid":"0000-0003-1265-7061","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1111540,"name":"Stephanie Cook","orcid":"0000-0003-4505-0813","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1119816,"name":"Kiara L. Moore","orcid":"0000-0002-2946-6483","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":766824,"name":"Robert D. Dvorak","orcid":"0000-0002-0613-1277","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":396142,"name":"Eric W. Schrimshaw","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1291835,"name":"Lindsay A. Taliaferro","orcid":"0000-0003-2856-0897","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":70,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:59.652443Z","pmid":"40837330","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}