Citation

Garrett KM, Waehler CA, Rogers JR. Suicidol. Online 2012; 3: 72-82.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2012, The author(s), Publisher Medical University of Vienna, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A sample of gay, lesbian, and bisexual adults (N=19) was interviewed regarding their perception of the relevance and interpretation of items in the Reasons for Living Inventory (Linehan et al., 1983). Interviews revealed that many RFL items were relevant to these LGB participants. However, participants also revealed that a number of the items conveyed assumptions of traditional heterosexual lifespan trajectories and belief systems with limited relevance to LGB experiences. Overall, the findings of these interviews suggest that previous research with LGB adults indicating fewer reasons to live as endorsed on the RLF, may have been an artifact of the lack of alignment of the items with the experiences of members of this population. Based on these findings, suggestions are made for the development of a version of the RFL using more inclusive language, specifically focused on the experiences of LGB individuals.

Keywords: Reasons for Living, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Suicide

Copyrights belong to the Author(s). Suicidology Online (SOL) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal publishing under the Creative Commons Licence 3.0.

Language: en