Trevor Project UK LGBTQ Youth Mental Health Survey

LGBTQ young people in the UK face substantially elevated risks of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidality compared with their heterosexual and cisgender peers, yet the evidence base on what drives these disparities, and what can be done about them, has historically been thin and overwhelmingly US-centred. The Trevor Project's UK Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health was designed to change that: a large-scale, high-quality survey of LGBTQ young people aged 13–24 across the UK, developed in partnership with UK-based researchers and shaped throughout by the voices of young people themselves.

Nearly 34,000 LGBTQ young people took part in the Trevor Project's 2022 US National Survey. The UK extension brought the same methodological rigour to a different national context, with its own legal landscape, service infrastructure, and cultural specificities.

The Trevor Project

The Trevor Project is the world's largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organisation for LGBTQ young people. Its international research mission is to produce high-quality, culturally and linguistically competent data from LGBTQ youth around the world, and to ensure that data is used by young people, organisations, and policymakers to prevent LGBTQ youth suicide. The UK strand of this international expansion was developed in collaboration with McPin Foundation and Dr Elizabeth McDermott at the University of Birmingham, Chief Investigator of the Queer Futures study , the first national evidence in England on LGBTQ+ youth suicide, self-harm, and help-seeking.

Developing the Survey

The survey was not simply adapted from the US version. The Trevor Project's international research team undertook extensive groundwork before the YPAG was involved: desk research on the state of LGBTQ youth mental health research and policy in the UK, and 18 information-gathering sessions between February and May 2022 with over 20 individuals from charities, NGOs, academic researchers, youth workers, and LGBTQ rights organisations. This context informed the survey design and ensured that the instrument was appropriate to the UK legal and cultural landscape before being reviewed by young people.

My Involvement

I was a member of the McPin Young People's Advisory Group (YPAG) for this project; a group of LGBTQ young people recruited specifically to shape the survey from the inside. The YPAG's involvement spanned five stages across three meetings:

1. Survey review. Reviewing the draft survey for terminology, language, accessibility, and relevance, bringing lived experience to questions about how concepts were framed and whether the questions would resonate with and be understood by the young people they were designed for.
2. Recruitment materials. Providing feedback on the social media recruitment wording and graphics. The materials young people would actually see before deciding whether to participate.
3. Survey test-run. Completing the programmed survey in its draft form to identify practical usability issues before launch.
4. Preliminary data review. Reviewing early findings with the Trevor Project research team. Making sense of what the data showed before it was finalised.
5. Country Report review. Reviewing the final UK Country Report and brainstorming how to translate the findings into formats useful for young people, policymakers, schools, charities, and researchers.

The survey launched in October 2022 and the UK Country Report was released in February 2023. The involvement model throughout was built around genuine influence at each stage, not retrospective consultation, but shaping the instrument, the recruitment, and the dissemination in real time.

What the Survey Found

More than 9,600 LGBTQ young people aged 13–24 completed the survey between April and May 2023. The findings were stark. 58% had seriously considered suicide in the past year; 19% had made an attempt. 62% reported symptoms of depression in the preceding two weeks, and 70% reported symptoms of anxiety. 58% had engaged in self-harm during the past year. Trans and nonbinary young people reported substantially higher rates across all of these outcomes than their cisgender LGB peers.

The data also identified clear protective factors. Young people with a trusted adult in their life considered suicide at a rate of 54%, compared with 78% for those without one. Those in very accepting schools attempted suicide at 13%, compared with 35% in non-accepting schools. Family support for gender identity was particularly important for trans and nonbinary young people, 50% of whom reported having it, compared with 69% of LGB young people who had family support for their sexual orientation. Access to gender-affirming tools was associated with lower suicide attempt rates among trans and nonbinary respondents.

LGBTQ young people are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Rather, they are placed at higher risk because of how they are mistreated and stigmatised in society.

The findings underscored what the research team and YPAG had expected: that UK-specific data was necessary, not just an extension of US findings. The legal landscape, school environment policy, and service infrastructure differ substantially, and so do the experiences young people report navigating them.