Supporting Sexual Minority Youth: Protective Factors of Adverse Health Outcomes and Implications for Public Health

Mintz, Sasha; Valido, Alberto; Rivas‐Koehl, Matthew; Kuehl, Tomei; Espelage, Dorothy L.; Woolweaver, Ashley B.; Ingram, Katherine M.

doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.05.021

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Medical and counseling access were protective factors significantly associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the class with moderate victimization experiences (Class 2), and counseling access was related to a lower likelihood of belonging to the class with high victimization across all outcomes (Class 3). These findings support previous findings that have shown associations between counseling and medical access as a shared protective factor for multiple forms of violence, particularly among LGBTQ youth [ 9 , 26 , 44 , 45 ]. Counseling and medical access could be protective by offering youth mental and physical health resources to cope with experiences of violence at school.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…In agreement with our hypotheses, several protective factors were associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the medium (Class 2) or high-risk class (Class 3) compared to the lowest risk class (Class 1). Consistent with previous literature, medical access, counseling access, family support, peer support, and spirituality emerged as significant protective factors associated with a lower risk of victimization [ 9 , 13 , 26 ]. Additionally, we found significant associations between a student’s gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, and the likelihood of belonging to a high-risk class.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Similarly, spirituality emerged as a significant protective factor of belonging to a high risk-class. Previous research has shown spirituality to be protective of adverse outcomes for GSM youth [ 26 , 27 ]. Scholars have demonstrated that LGBTQ individuals who are spiritually involved may experience many positive benefits to their wellbeing, including greater acceptance of their own LGBTQ identity and more positive relationships with others [ 66 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Protective factors of victimization in schools have been described at multiple levels of the social ecology. For example, at the individual level, spirituality has been shown to be protective of adverse outcomes [ 26 , 27 ]. Previous research has shown family and school-level factors like support from trusted adults, peer groups, and family members to be protective factors for youth across sexual and gender identities [ 9 , 13 , 26 , 27 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, at the individual level, spirituality has been shown to be protective of adverse outcomes [ 26 , 27 ]. Previous research has shown family and school-level factors like support from trusted adults, peer groups, and family members to be protective factors for youth across sexual and gender identities [ 9 , 13 , 26 , 27 ]. At the community level, we included access to medical and counseling services to explore whether these types of support may be protective against multiple forms of victimization, both of which have been supported by prior research [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Latent Class Analysis of Victimization Patterns and Associated Protective Factors among LGBTQ Youth

Valido

Rivas‐Koehl

Rivas-Koehl

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Youth victimization in schools remains a fervent public health issue, despite increased awareness of this issue, and this is especially true for marginalized populations like lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Youth violence has been studied widely, but less research has sought to understand factors protective of violence victimization, particularly protective factors shared across multiple forms of violence. In the current study, we utilized latent class analysis to test patterns of three types of victimization: peer victimization (PV), homophobic name-calling victimization (HNCV), and sexual harassment victimization (SHV). In addition, we tested protective factors associated with experiencing these types of violence. Our sample included 4778 9–11th graders in the United States, of which about 15% identified as LGBTQ. Three unique classes of victimization emerged, suggesting that concurrent forms of violence occur among some groups of adolescents. LGBTQ youth were more likely to be members of classes which demonstrated higher levels of victimization. Consistent with previous literature, medical access, counseling access, family support, peer support, and spirituality emerged as significant protective factors associated with a lower risk of victimization. We discuss the implications of our findings with specific attention to protecting the wellbeing of SGM youth.

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