Schools and the professionals who work within them play key roles in the lives of LGBTQ young people. Teachers, professors, and school counselors are important sources of information, support, and care for LGBTQ students, especially in the absence of support from their families or local communities. LGBTQ students who  identified a greater number of supportive school staff reported higher levels of self-esteem, lower levels of depression, and lower rates of having seriously considered suicide in the past year (Kosciw et al., 2022). Among LGBQ students, having caring teachers is associated with lower levels of negative mental health symptoms (Parmar et al., 2022). Using data from The Trevor Project's 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People, this brief examines the relationships between caring teachers and student mental health, including transgender and nonbinary students, as well as demographic differences in LGBTQ young people's access to caring relationships in schools. This brief additionally investigates rates of LGBTQ young people who report learning about LGBTQ topics from school staff and associations between learning about LGBTQ topics and mental health.

Young LGBTQ people of color, transgender and nonbinary young people, and young people from lower socioeconomic status all reported lower rates of feeling their teacher or professor cared about them. LGBTQ young people of color reported lower rates of feeling that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them, compared to their White LGBTQ peers. Across gender identity, transgender and nonbinary young people reported lower rates of feeling that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them compared to their cisgender peers. LGBTQ young people who were assigned female at birth reported higher rates of feeling that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them compared to their peers who were assigned male at birth. One in 5 cisgender girls and women (20%) reported feeling that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them, compared to 17% of cisgender boys and men.

Meanwhile, nearly one in ten (9%) transgender boys and men and nearly one in four (24%) of nonbinary young people assigned female at birth reported that they felt that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them, compared to 4% of transgender girls and women and 7% of nonbinary young people assigned male at birth. Among LGBTQ young people who reported just meeting their basic financial needs, only 12% reported feeling that their teachers or professors cared a lot or very much about them, compared to 88% of LGBTQ young people who reported more than just meeting their basic needs.

Read the full article about the mental health of LGBTQ+ students at Candid.