Social Class Inequality, Heteronormativity and Shame

Abstract

Investigations of LGBT youth suicide and self-harm very rarely engage with the idea that queer youth who are poor and have few resources might have greater difficulties coping with hostile (homo/bi/transphobic) environments. One exception is a recent UK study which suggests that low income is a predictor of suicide attempts and self-harm for young LGB and heterosexual people (Nodin et al., 2015). While this is generally not addressed in LGBT studies, in the wider self-harm literature there is a strong association between socioeconomic status and suicide and self-harm in young people. Numerous studies have found indicators of socio-economic disadvantage, such as long-term parental unemployment, low family income and single parent households to be independent risk factors for self-harming behaviours in young people (Jablonska et al., 2009). Australian research has found that socio-economic factors had a similar magnitude of attributable population risk to psychiatric disorders (Page et al, 2014a). In the UK, analysis of a longitudinal birth cohort study found lower socio-economic position (measured through occupational class, maternal education and household income) during childhood to be associated with a risk of self-harm with suicidal intent in adolescence. The cumulative effects of low income were also apparent, with those adolescents of parents reporting low incomes consistently during childhood, having a higher relative risk of self-harm than adolescents of parents who never reported having low incomes. In other words, the risk of self-harm is greater the longer the young person is exposed to poor living conditions (Page et al, 2014b). This means, in public health terms, the burden of suicide and self-harm is borne by those young people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum.