Non-Binary, LGBTQ+ Mental Health in College Students Poor

June 15, 2024

Undergraduate college students are more likely to experience depression and anxiety today than ever before. Among those students, non-binary and LGBQ+ individuals have recently experienced a particularly significant increase in diagnoses for depression and anxiety compared to their heterosexual peers.¹

According to new research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, about one-third of students in the 2011-2012 school year said they felt “so depressed it was hard to function.” By 2017-2018, this number grew to 42% — a 13% annual increase, according to the study authors. Among LGBQ+ students — defined as lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and others — the rate of diagnosis and treatment for depression rose 23% per year during the same time frame.

Further, the number of non-binary BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students diagnosed with or treated for depression rose 61% between 2016 and 2019; among non-binary non-Hispanic white students, depression diagnoses rose 49% over the same period.

The study reported a notable rise in the number of students diagnosed with or treated for anxiety. Among LGBQ+ students, the incidence of anxiety increased 22% each year; for heterosexual students, it rose 12% each year.

The number of students who seriously thought about suicide nearly doubled from 7.4% to 13% over the study period, with a more pronounced increase among LGBQ+ and BIPOC students, especially women.

“These results indicate that it is imperative to better address the mental health challenges faced by non-binary and LGBQ+ students while avoiding actions that may lead to their alienation, isolation, and oppression,” the study’s authors wrote.

They attribute the rising mental health challenges in college students to factors such as academic stress and burnout, poor social support, poor sleep, less in-person social interaction, and more isolation.¹

For the study, researchers analyzed data from the American College Health Association and National College Health Assessment II: 2016–2019, which included a sample of 228,640 undergraduate students, ages 18-24, from 442 campuses.

Poor Mental Health Reported in Non-Binary Transgender Adults

A February 2024 study of 1.5 million people, including nearly 8,000 transgender people aged 16 or older in England, reported similar results. The study, published in The Lancet Public Health journal, found that gender-diverse adult populations experience a much higher prevalence of mental health conditions compared to cisgender adult populations, with inequalities concentrated in patients younger than 35 years.²

The study revealed that long-term mental health conditions impact approximately one in two non-binary transgender adults and one in six transgender men, women, and cisgender non-binary adults; in contrast, just one in ten cisgender men and women were diagnosed with a mental health condition.

The English research team suggests that mental health outcomes for this patient population could benefit from practitioners who conduct better training for their medical staff, adopt inclusive language, and standardize electronic healthcare record systems to include transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse identities, which would “reduce the psychological burden associated with repeated explaining or being misgendered, again reducing minority stress and potentially improving mental health.”

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