BACKGROUND Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) are school-based clubs that can contribute to a healthy school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. While positive associations between health behaviors and GSAs have been documented, less is known about how youth perceive GSAs. METHODS Fifty-eight LGBTQ youth (14–19 years old) mentioned GSAs during go-along interviews in three states/provinces in North America. These 446 comments about GSAs were thematically coded and organized using Atlas.ti software by a multi-disciplinary research team. RESULTS Three themes describe youth-perceived attributes of GSAs. First, youth identified GSAs as an opportunity to be members of a community, evidenced by their sense of emotional connection, support and belonging, opportunities for leadership, and fulfillment of needs. Second, GSAs served as a gateway to resources outside of the GSA, such as supportive adults and informal social locations. Third, GSAs represented safety. CONCLUSIONS GSAs positively influence the physical, social, emotional, and academic well-being of LGBTQ young people and their allies. School administrators and staff are positioned to advocate for comprehensive GSAs. Study findings offer insights about the mechanisms by which GSAs benefit youth health and well-being.

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Emerging adulthood has been defined as a distinct developmental stage in which youth experience opportunities for identity development and transition toward independence. While this period has been examined for youth in the general population, less is known about how foster youth experience this transition. This study uses qualitative interviews with 20 foster youth to understand their experiences during emerging adulthood. Consensual qualitative research is used to analyze data and develop core themes around youth experiences. Foster youth not only report sharing many characteristics with youth in the general population during this stage but also have experiences that are uniquely tied to their foster care history. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Research is scarce that examines how previous life experiences impact emerging adulthood, generally recognized as a distinct developmental stage between ages 18 and 26. Using cumulative advantage-disadvantage theory, this study explores differences during the transition to adulthood between youth with and without foster care experience. A multiple-step, multiple-mediator model with logistic regression was used with data from Wave III of Add Health (n ¼ 13,574). Results suggest that youth with foster care experience are undergoing an accelerated path to their adult identities. No longer attending school and perceived independence help explain this finding.KEYWORDS aging out of foster care, foster care, independent living services for youth, child welfare, transition to adulthood, emerging adulthoodOver the past 20 years the transition to adulthood has become longer and more varied. Many of today's youth slowly emerge into adult roles and responsibilities throughout their twenties. These youth do not identify as adults until their early thirties, when they feel that they have reached a level of self-sufficiency and social maturity (Arnett, 2004). Arnett (2000) suggests that this period represents a new stage of development called emerging adulthood. Arnett (2004) explains emerging adulthood, ages 18 to 26 years, as a time when

Background The standard approach for evaluating the effects of population-level substance use prevention efforts on youth and young adult perceptions and behaviors has been to compare outcomes across states using national surveillance data. Novel surveillance methods that follow individuals over shorter time intervals and capture awareness of substance use prevention policy and communication efforts may provide a stronger basis for their evaluation than annual cross-sectional studies. Objective This study aimed to identify a combination of strategies to recruit a sample of youth and young adults sufficiently representative of the Vermont population and determine how best to retain a web-based panel of youth and young adults over a 6-month period. Methods Eligible participants were Vermont residents aged 12 to 25 years who were willing to complete three 10 to 15-minute web-based surveys over a 6-month period. Recruitment was conducted via the following three main mechanisms: (1) web-based recruitment (paid and unpaid), (2) community-based recruitment through partners, and (3) participant referrals via a personalized link. Upon completion of the baseline survey, participants were randomly assigned to one of the following three retention incentive conditions: (1) guaranteed incentive (US $10), (2) lottery incentive (US $50 weekly lottery drawing), and (3) preferred method (guaranteed or lottery). Analyses examined cost per survey start by recruitment source, distribution of demographic characteristics across incentive conditions, and retention by study condition at 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. Results Over a 10-week period in 2019, we recruited 480 eligible youth (aged 12-17 years) and 1037 eligible young adults (aged 18-25 years) to the Policy and Communication Evaluation (PACE) Vermont Study. Facebook and Instagram advertising produced the greatest number of survey starts (n=2013), followed by posts to a state-wide web-based neighborhood forum (n=822) and Google advertisements (n=749). Retention was 78.11% (1185/1517) at 3 months and 72.18% (1095/1517) at 6 months. Retention was equivalent across all incentive study conditions at both waves, despite a strong stated preference among study participants for the guaranteed payment at baseline. Youth had greater retention than young adults at both waves (wave 2: 395/480, 82.3% vs 790/1037, 76.18%; wave 3: 366/480, 76.3% vs 729/1037, 70.30%). Substance use prevalence in this cohort was similar to national and state-level surveillance estimates for young adults, but was lower than state-level surveillance estimates for youth. Most participants retained at wave 3 provided positive qualitative feedback on their experience. Conclusions Our study supports the feasibility of recruiting a web-based cohort of youth and young adults with representation across an entire state to evaluate substance use prevention efforts. Findings suggest that a guaranteed payment immediately upon survey completion coupled with a bonus for completing all survey waves and weekly survey reminders may facilitate retention in a cohort of youth and young adults.