Fridae

Support from family members and affirming homes were linked to better mental health in a new US study of LGBTQ+ young people. The Trevor Project published the report on 20 October. It covers the first five rounds of Project SPARK surveys.

Researchers asked whether family members had done things such as talk respectfully about LGBTQ+ identity or support gender expression. There were 12 actions in that part of the survey. Average family-support scores stayed near two on a four-point scale over the study.

Alongside its home-environment findings, the report includes a request for more support: “I would like more motivational support from people around me especially from my family members”.

Of those with enough data for the home-environment measure, 53% initially described their home as LGBTQ+-affirming. Two years later, the figure was 61%.

There were 1,689 young people when the study began, all aged 13 to 24 at enrolment. They signed up through paid online ads. This wasn't a random sample of the US population. The questions were in English and answers were confidential. The team collected responses between September 2023 and March 2026, with 1,217 people answering the last survey.

A smaller share reported self-harm at the two-year follow-up than at the start. The share reporting a suicide attempt also fell. Anxiety and depressive symptoms were still common across the surveys. Discrimination and financial insecurity were also recurring problems for participants. Getting care could be difficult, too. Cost and needing a parent's permission were among the barriers.

The findings describe a self-selected US cohort with loss to follow-up. They cannot prove that family support caused an improvement, and the symptom measures rely on people’s own responses rather than clinical diagnoses.