Supportive families and schools help prevent substance use among trans youth: study

Strong family and school connections are helping prevent transgender youth from smoking cigarettes and using marijuana, even among those targeted by violence.

That’s the key finding of a new national study led by researchers in the Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC) in the school of nursing at the University of British Columbia.

The study analyzed data from 323 transgender youth ages 14 to 18 who took the 2014 Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey. Among trans youth who reported experiencing high amounts of violence, those who had no family support or caring friends had a 61 per cent probability of smoking tobacco. But that probability dropped to only 20 per cent among those with supportive family and friends.

In addition, youth who reported high family connectedness were about 88 per cent less likely to report smoking cannabis in the past month, compared to those who reported lower family connectedness. For trans adolescents with high levels of both family and school connectedness, the probability of marijuana use…