According to a new study, college students who identify as heterosexual but engage in same-sex sexual behavior and/or are attracted to people of the same-sex are at the highest risk of suicidal behavior, ranking above students who identified as gay and significantly higher than students identifying as heterosexual and engaging in opposite-sex sexual behavior.

Reported in ScienceDaily, the study consisted of an 86 question survey given to 528 undergraduate students at The University of Wisconsin. Of the 528 survey participants, 404 were heterosexuals, 79 were same-sex attracted heterosexuals, 38 were gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and 7 said they were not sure of their sexual identity. The students ranged in age from 17 to 26.

Students identifying themselves as heterosexual but engaging in same-sex sexual behavior or reporting being attracted to individuals of the same sex were at the highest risk of suicidal behavior, being “three times as likely as heterosexuals to have made a plan to commit suicide in the past year and six times more likely to have actually attempted suicide in the same period.”

In contrast, gay, lesbian & bisexual-identified students were only “twice as likely as heterosexuals to have planned and to have attempted suicide in the previous year.”

According to the article:

“A lot of people stop thinking about sexual orientation related victimization and suicide as a problem beyond the K-12 school years,” she said. “But suicide doesn’t stop after high school. I thought I wouldn’t find very much victimization in Seattle, and I certainly wasn’t expecting these kinds of numbers.”

The study was provoked by a question from a 15-year-old gay male while Murphy was working on an internship as a school psychologist at a high school. The youth, who was suicidal and using drugs, asked her, “Does it get better in college”" She didn’t know.

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She said the high suicidal-behavior rate among the same-sex attracted heterosexuals was a surprise, primarily because researchers previously had not looked at them as a separate group. “I was shocked by the finding because the rate for these students was just off the charts,” Murphy said.

There are two possible explanations for this, according to Murphy. One is that these people are still in the process of determining their sexual identity and the period before they disclose that they might be gay, lesbian or bisexual is difficult and they engage in suicidal thinking.

“They are still trying to fit into the mainstream heterosexual society and are not willing to talk to friends or go to a queer center to talk about what they are experiencing,” she said. “The gay culture has a family feeling that is welcoming and shows pride. However, these students are not there yet so they may be feeling shame and homophobia.”

The second possibility is that many bisexuals make this identification later in their 20s when they come out, and at 19, the mean age of the students in the study, many students may not yet be at the point of coming out, said Murphy.

Read the entire article.