Since launching our reducing inequality focus area in 2014, the Foundation has prioritized research that examines ways to reduce inequalities by race, ethnicity, economic standing, language minority status, or immigrant origin. In response to an unprecedented increase in the introduction of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation over the past two years, we recently expanded our research interests for our program of research grants on reducing inequality to include studies of program, policies, and practices to reduce inequality in youth outcomes on the dimension of sexual or gender minority status.
In the early-mid 2010s, we witnessed significant gains in social acceptance and historic advancements toward securing equal rights for members of the LGBTQ+ population. However, the past decade has been marked by a steady erosion of this progress, with LGBTQ+ youth often the target of socio-political backlash. For example, much of the recent legislation seeks to restrict the discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in curriculum and limit the rights of LGBTQ+ youth in school environments. A growing body of research links anti-LGBTQ+ school and state policies to negative mental health outcomes among LGBTQ+ youth, including an increased risk of suicide.
We recently expanded our research interests for our program of research grants on reducing inequality to include studies of program, policies, and practices to reduce inequality in youth outcomes on the dimension of sexual or gender minority status.
Below we highlight examples of funded studies that explore programs, policies, and practices intended to improve outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth. By elevating these examples, we hope to emphasize how leverage points to reduce inequality for LGBTQ+ youth exist in a variety of contexts. Indeed, it will require a comprehensive body of research to protect LGBTQ+ youth and help them thrive at home, in school, and in their communities.
One such study, led by Katie Edwards, seeks to address the disproportionately high rates of negative socio-emotional and academic outcomes experienced by LGBTQ+ youth of color. These negative outcomes can be exacerbated by caregiver rejection, an experience which deprives youth of an essential buffer against the stress associated with occupying multiple minoritized identities. Centering caregiver support as a lever of change, Edwards adapts a promising in-person intervention to an online, accessible format. The program combines culturally responsive psychoeducation with skills and advocacy training and provides caregivers and their LGBTQ+ youth with peer connection opportunities. Trained facilitators lead weekly virtual sessions which include videos, experiential learning activities, and group discussions. Initial sessions provide tailored content to caregivers and LGBTQ+ youth separately, while later sessions convene both groups to reflect and learn together. Edwards and colleagues will use a waitlist control design and assess outcomes using pre- and post-intervention surveys to explore the program’s potential to improve a variety of youth and caregiver outcomes such as anxiety/depression, caregiver rejecting behaviors, academic engagement, and family bonding.
While the previous intervention focuses on fostering a supportive environment for LGBTQ+ youth at home, another seeks to improve mental health outcomes for youth in schools. This project, led by Pamela Morris-Perez, uses a cluster-randomized waitlist control design to test whether a youth filmmaking suicide prevention program improves knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived norms and stigma, school connectedness, help-seeking, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors among participating students, particularly those identifying as LGBTQ+. By creating short films on topics related to mental health, suicide risk, and help-seeking behaviors, students engage directly with suicide prevention content. Through such applied learning, Morris-Perez hypothesizes that students internalize key messaging, which may lead to improved recognition of suicidal ideation in their peers, higher rates of help-seeking behaviors, and ultimately an improvement in mental health outcomes. As LGBTQ+ youth tend to have reduced access to trusted, supportive adults and are less likely to be directed to mental health services, this reduction in stigma may be differentially impactful for LGBTQ+ students struggling with suicidal ideation.
While the previous studies test behavioral interventions at the family and school-level, TJ Billard takes a more structural approach to reducing inequality among LGBTQ+ youth. Billard seeks to better understand the relationship between misinformation about transgender youth and the creation of policies targeting this population. Billard hypothesizes that shifting gender norms and increased social ambiguity, or disorientation due to rapid social change, lead people to depend more upon media narratives for understanding. As misinformation tends to circulate more often in times of social crises, an increased dependency on media may result in higher engagement with misinformation at the individual and state level, resulting in policies which limit transgender youth’s access to care and civil liberties. Billard will use a dataset linking individuals’ demographic and socio-political data with web traffic and archival information on state-level policies regarding transgender youth. These analyses will lay the groundwork for an experiment in which Billard tests whether reducing social ambiguity in a simulated social media environment decreases a belief in misinformation about transgender youth. Results from this experiment will inform the development of a policy intervention designed to combat the spread of misinformation on transgender youth and its harmful effects on LGBTQ+ at a structural level.
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We hope these examples highlight the diversity of interventions with potential to improve societal conditions and outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth. Progress towards reducing inequality for this population will require a robust, multifaceted, and inventive approach. We encourage researchers studying ways to improve outcomes for LGBTQ+ youth within family, school, state, and other contexts to apply for our funding. We welcome studies from a wide range of methodological approaches.
