Sexual and gender minority youth of color experience disproportionately high rates of negative behavioral, emotional, and academic outcomes due to stressors related to occupying multiple minoritized social identities. Families, including caregivers, can play a critical role in the lives of sexual and gender minority youth of color by buffering against these stressors, but caregivers can also exacerbate or create stress by rejecting youth because of their sexual or gender identity. Edwards and colleagues will examine the extent to which an online version of the Family Acceptance Project, an intervention that has shown promise in pilot studies when delivered in person, reduces caregiver rejection and internalized oppression among sexual and gender minority youth of color. After refining the intervention for online delivery, they will recruit and randomly assign 90 youth between the ages of 14 and 18 and their caregivers to the treatment or wait-list control group. The team will examine the program’s effect on reducing youth internalized oppression, fostering caregiver acceptance and support of youth, and facilitating family bonding and communication. The intervention has the potential to reach caregivers of sexual and gender minority youth of color in hard-to-access areas, address intersecting minority stressors, and improve family acceptance of sexual and gender minority youth. Findings will be shared with academic, practice, and policy audiences
To what extent does an online family-based intervention promote positive youth development and reduce negative behavioral, social, and emotional outcomes among sexual and gender minority youth of color?
