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Two questions were addressed regarding suicide attempts among sexual-minority youths: Who should be classified as a sexual minority, and what constitutes a suicide attempt? Results from 2 studies indicated that sexual-minority youths, broadly defined in terms of sexual orientation and recruitment venue, were slightly more likely than heterosexual youths to report a suicide attempt. To afford a more accurate assessment of suicide attempts, a detailed measure distinguished true from false attempts. This method eliminated over half of suicide attempt reports among sexual minorities because they were false attempts-ideation rather than a concrete act to end life. Furthermore, many true attempts were not life threatening, suggesting that the reports were attempts to communicate the hardships of lives or to identify with a gay community. Language: en

Eighty-three gay and bisexual male youths (17-23 years old) completed questionnaires and a structured interview. Pubertal maturation was associated with self-reported age of first orgasm and ho mosexual activity and frequency of orgasms during junior high school. Unrelated were age of first same-sex attractions, sexual orientation, age of first heterosexual activity, frequency of orgasms dur ing high school, number of lifetime male and female sex partners, reactions to puberty, and self esteem. Early and on-time maturers rarely varied from each other on the assessed domains. Youths did not differ in self-esteem level from heterosexual male youths. Gay and bisexual male youths share with heterosexual male youths a similar developmental trajectory in regard to pubertal maturation and self-esteem

Employing a new self-report technique (paging devices), the self-feelings of 35 adolescents were assessed in various naturalistic contexts. Regression analysis was used to assess the stability of self-feelings. Individuals fell into three groups: stable, oscillating, and unpredictable (the largest). For the sample as a whole, self-feelings were not influenced by the immediate context, although specific settings, activities, and others present within the contexts elicited various levels of self-feelings. More crucial for predicting the self-feelings of adolescents are such enduring characteristics as sex, social class, pubertal maturation, stability group, birth order, and number of siblings. The authors argue for a baseline conceptualization of adolescent self-conception from which fluctuations occur.

This research challenges the traditional conception of adolescence as a time of stress and instability in self-concept. Using multiple measures of self-concept with a longitudinal sample, three components of self-concept are distinguished: the experienced self, the presented self, and self-feelings Feelings about the self are relatively stable from moment to moment and from year to year. There are apparently three routes through the adolescent years: stable, baseline, and oscillating. For most study participants, level of self-esteem increased gradually and only slightly from 7th to 10th grade. This study is unique because of its methodology (longitudinal and multiple measures) and its counter-traditional characterization of adolescence.