Youth who identify as 2SLGBTQ+ experience high rates of sexual violence and related negative mental health outcomes. Services that help these young people build resilience may have the potential to improve their outcomes and mitigate harm. IMpower, a feminist empowerment self-defense program, has been found to reduce sexual violence among Indigenous girls and shows early promise for doing the same among 2SLGBTQ+ youth. Guided by an Indigenous advisory board, Edwards and colleagues will use a community-based participatory action research approach to adapt and evaluate IMpower. By integrating Indigenous practices and worldviews with physical and verbal defense education, the program is theorized not only to empower young people to resist violence, but to develop a stronger sense of confidence, critical consciousness, and community connection. After conducting a small pilot study to examine how Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ youth experience and respond to the adapted program, the team and youth advisory board will refine the program, which will then be tested in a wait-list randomized-controlled trial of 300 Indigenous 2SLGBTQ+ youth. The team will collect immediate pre-, post-, 6-, and 12- month follow-up data on primary and secondary outcomes.
Does a self-defense program adapted for and by Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, or Questioning (2SLGBTQ+) Indigenous youth reduce sexual violence and promote positive youth development?
