Non-parental adults in the social and risk behavior networks of sexual minority male youth

Abstract

The presence of non-parental adults (NPAs), or adults outside of caregivers (e.g., extended family, natural mentors), in the lives of adolescents and emerging adults has received a rapidly expanding amount of empirical attention in the last decade. Sexual minority male youth (SMMY) face disproportionate risks of abuse and victimization in relationships with parents and peers. Yet, despite the fact that this group, therefore, may be both potentially vulnerable to negative interpersonal influences but also poised to benefit from additional relationships, NPA involvement in the lives of SMMY is currently not well understood in the extant literature. This study sought to examine and characterize the involvement of NPAs in the social and risk networks of SMMY (n = 175; 54% African American, 21% Hispanic/Latino, 14% Caucasian; ages 17–23). Most SMMY identified at least one NPA, such as friends and grandparents, in their networks. Three categories of relationships were identified, Strictly Social, which only involved social interactions; Complex, which were both social and involved substance use and/or sexual activity; and Risky, which purely consisted of substance use or sexual activity. Relationships were rated as emotionally “closer” among ethnic minority SMMY, although, racial/ethnic similarity between SMMY and NPAs was not associated with relationship closeness. In addition, relationships involving female and heterosexual NPAs were also rated as stronger. These findings suggest the potential usefulness of considering multiple types of relationships between SMMY and NPAs when designing intervention and prevention efforts. Moreover, African American and Latino SMMY, who represent the most vulnerable sub-groups of SMMY in terms of HIV-risk, may be particularly poised to benefit from positive NPA relationships.

Associations Between Experienced HIV Stigma, Resulting Consequences, and the HIV Care Continuum: Moderating Effects of Two Resilience Characteristics Among Persons Living with HIV (PLWH) in Louisiana

“…For example, interventions that enhance the RAR and social support components might be useful, particularly among MSM, and persons who have been living with HIV for a shorter period of time, both which seemed to experience high levels of HIV stigma and report lower levels of resilience in this analysis. There are several social support type interventions that engage PLWH in their care that might be leveraged in this type of context [53,54]. For example, Project nGage was found to improve HIV care through the utilization of an organic social support network [53].…”

Natural Mentoring and LGBTQ Youth: A Systematic Review

“…Of the eight studies included in this review, four were quantitative (Drevon et al 2016;Gastic and Johnson 2009;Singer, 2015;Sterrett et al 2015), three were qualitative (Mulcahy et al 2016;Reed et al 2018;Torres et al 2012), and one was a mixed-methods design (Johnson and Gastic 2015). All of the studies were cross-sectional and were descriptive and/or associational.…”

“…A broad range of natural mentoring constructs were examined, including their influence on mental health outcomes and substance use (Drevon et al 2016;Singer 2015), how they protect the well-being of sexual minority youth (Torres et al 2012) processes whereby these relationships are established (Mulcahy et al 2016), who participants identify as mentors (Reed et al 2018), mentor characteristics (Reed et al 2018;Sterrett et al 2015), their functions (Reed et al 2018), how they influence education attainment (Drevon et al 2016;Gastic and Johnson 2009), and the timing and context of mentoring relationships (Johnson and Gastic 2015). One study examined additional constructs (Singer 2015), including the effect of natural mentoring relationships according to sexual orientation and a comparison of the benefits of these relationships on health outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual youth.…”

“…One study examined additional constructs (Singer 2015), including the effect of natural mentoring relationships according to sexual orientation and a comparison of the benefits of these relationships on health outcomes between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. Two studies explored the safety of potential mentors, including how youth determine who is safe (Mulcahy et al 2016) and if mentors and mentees are engaged in risky behaviors, such as having sex or using drugs together (Sterrett et al 2015).…”

“…Four studies implicitly referred to resiliency theory (Gastic and Johnson 2009;Mulcahy et al 2016;Sterrett et al 2015;Torres et al 2012). One study (Singer 2015) comprehensively incorporated the compensatory and protective factor models of resiliency theory (Zimmerman 2013), the minority stress model (Meyer 2003), and the Rhodes conceptual model (Rhodes et al 2006).…”