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# Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Youth in the Education System: Applying the Agent Based Approach (ABA)

## Details

**Authors** Blu U

**Year** 2024

**Publisher** Journal of Systems Thinking 4(1):1-17

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Public Health

**Kind of engagement** scholarly

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.54120/jost.000003.v1) 
10.54120/jost.000003.v1

## In authors' words

### Abstract

The mental health crisis of LGBTQ+ youth is a real problem with a lot of contributing factors. A meta-analysis conducted in 2011 showed that the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth and risk of depression or suicidality is far higher than their non-LGBTQ+ peers by a rate of 2.92. Further more, CDC data shows that regardless of sex, LGB adolescents are at significantly higher risk of suicide. This paper uses a Systems Thinking-focused Agent Based Approach (ABA) to discuss and analyze the Complex Adaptive System (CAS) of the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth in the education system. It also analyzes these systems that have an adverse effect on LGBTQ+ youth in a time where newly proposed Title IX amendments have the potential to grant Title IX protections to sexual orientation and gender identity within the education system.

### What they set out to do (purpose)

A paper applying the Agent-Based Approach to the mental-health crisis of LGBTQ+ youth in the education system.

### What they found (results)

The mental health of LGBTQ+ youth is a complex adaptive system; the analysis situates their significantly elevated depression and suicide risk within school-system structures, in the context of proposed Title IX protections.

## Commentary

### In short

Uses the Agent Based Approach to analyze the systems in schools that affect the mental health of LGBTQ+ youth.

**Patterns it shows** D, R

**How to cite this** Blu U (2024). Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Youth in the Education System: Applying the Agent Based Approach (ABA). Journal of Systems Thinking 4(1):1-17.