Be YOU!: A Collaborative Effort to Address Minority Stress for LGBTQ+ Youth in School Settings

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Gay Lesbian Soc Serv
• Personal Author:
  Fish, Jessica N. ; Kapostasy, Sarah ; Russell, Stephen T.
• Description:
  LGBTQ youth often experience unsafe school climates and are at greater risk for compromised mental health relative to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. The psychological mediation model posits that these health inequities are produced by minority stress, which operates through several key mechanisms: rumination, emotion regulation, and coping. Efforts towards designing social services that might address these mechanisms, and thus improve LGBTQ youth wellbeing, are limited. Informed by empirical research and therapeutic practices, | was conceived as a school-based empowerment program that provides LGBTQ youth with an accessible, safe space where they build skills to reduce rumination and promote emotion regulation and coping strategies for dealing with minority stressors. Developed collaboratively between a local LGBTQ youth center, a local school-based community organization, and university researchers, the | partnership effectively circumvented barriers to accessing social services for LGBTQ youth. Findings from the pilot program evaluation showed that youth participation was associated with increased emotion regulation and decreased rumination. The practical impact on and positive feedback from LGBTQ youth suggest that there are measurable benefits and long-term promise in strategic multi-sector partnerships that address social services needs of LGBTQ youth and strengthen their ability to navigate minority stress.
• Keywords:
  Community-based Organization LGBTQ Youth Mental Health School-based Programs
• Source:
  J Gay Lesbian Soc Serv. 35(4):434-455
• Pubmed ID:
  38322581
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10846892
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P2C HD041041/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P2C HD042849/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U48 DP006382/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:e5ac19df32318f890a0d3820fadc9ed265586dcdd3005bd142e2020354c1bf37
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/148977/cdc_148977_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 681.33 KB ]