Depressive symptoms and parental support-seeking in Latinx adolescents: Analyzing variation based on LGBT identity

Adolescents experiencing depressive symptoms tend to withdraw from social interaction, but patterns among Latinx LGBT youth (i.e., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) are unclear. Latinx adolescents in the Greater Los Angeles Area (N = 549) were surveyed during two consecutive years, and longitudinal relationships among depressive symptoms, parental support-seeking, and loneliness were examined for differences based on youth's LGBT identity. LGBT identity moderated the relationship between baseline depressive symptoms and subsequent parental support-seeking, such that higher baseline depressive symptoms predicted less subsequent parental support-seeking for non-LGBT youth, but not for LGBT youth. The relationship between parental support-seeking and depressive symptoms, both at Time 2, was moderated by LGBT identity, such that more support-seeking tended to correspond with fewer depressive symptoms for non-LGBT youth, but the opposite tended to occur for LGBT youth. Results suggest a subgroup effect, such that LGBT Latinx adolescents may seek parental support differently than their non-LGBT Latinx peers in the context of depressive symptoms.