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About this paper symposium
| Panel information |
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| Panel 5. Identity |
| Paper #1 | |
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| Recognizing racial and ethnic diversity among a growing number of queer youth | |
| Author information | Role |
| Allen B. Mallory, The Ohio State University, United States | Presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Nearly 20% of adults in Generation Z identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or another LGBTQ+ identity compared to about 11% of Millennials (Jones, 2022). Data from adolescents in school also suggests that the proportion of adolescents in Generation Z who identified as sexually diverse adolescents (SDA) increased from 7.3% in 2009 to 14.3% in 2017 (Raifman et al., 2020). Among these studies, often the greatest proportion of SDY identify as bisexual. What has received less attention is the racial diversity among this young generation of SDY. As scholars and practitioners develop intervention and prevention strategies for LGBTQ+ youth, lack of attention to the racial and ethnic diversity among the population will undermine the effectiveness of these strategies (Keefe et al., 2023). Mental health outcomes vary at the intersections of race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation (Bostwick et al., 2014). Structural and interpersonal racism (Jackson et al., 2023; Mallory & Russell, 2021) have been linked to worse mental health among SDA. Further, systemic racism has led to the lack of attention to racial diversity among SDA in contemporary research. The current study examines the prevalence of sexual identity across racial and ethnic groups in a large, national probability sample of U.S. adolescents. We used data from high school students from the 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021 national Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS; See figure 1 for sample sizes). The national YRBS is a repeated cross-sectional survey conducted every odd year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Participants ages range from 12 years old or younger to 18 or older (the anchor points are usually 1-4% of participants). Sexual orientation was created from a combination of sexual identity (i.e., heterosexual, bisexual, gay or lesbian, or unsure—in 2021 the options “some other way” and “don’t know what this means” were added) and sexual behavior (i.e., sexual contact with: only males, only females, both males and females, or no sexual contact). SDA were considered youth who were not heterosexual and reported same or same and different-sex sexual contact. Race and ethnicity were coded as Multiracial non-Hispanic, multiracial Hispanic, Hispanic/Latine, White, Native Hawaiian, Black or African American, Asian, and American Indian/Alaskan Native. Preliminary results of the weighted percentages suggest that 19% (2015), 22% (2017), 24% (2019), and 31% (2021) of adolescents identified as SDA. Within racial/ethnic groups, between 17-30% (2015), 16-27% (2017), 18-31% (2019), and 22-38% (2021) were SDY across racial and ethnic groups (shown in orange in Figure 1). Although they were the numerical majority, White youth never had the highest relative percentage of SDA. The highest percentage was Native Hawaiian (2015), Black/African American (2017 & 2019), and Multiracial-non Hispanic (2021). The lowest relative percentages were found among White and Hispanic/Latine (2015), Hispanic/Latine and Asian (2017), Native Hawaiian (2019), and Native American/Alaskan Native (2021) youth. It is imperative that future research on SDA attend to the racial and ethnic diversity of the population. The complexity in changes of percentages within each racial and ethnic group across years requires a better understanding of the sociopolitical and school dynamics that may shift the percentages of youth identifying as SDA of color. The final results will: (1) present a trend analysis to allow direct statistical comparison across years and racial ethnic groups (2) examine racial and ethnic diversity within sexual identity and sexual behavior; and (3) estimate age-adjusted predicted probabilities of depressive symptoms and suicidality differences between SDA and heterosexual youth within each racial and ethnic group. |
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| Paper #2 | |
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| Race-based bullying, gender-based bullying, and health among transgender youth of color | |
| Author information | Role |
| Meg D. Bishop, University of Maryland, College Park, United States | Presenting author |
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Allen B. Mallory Ohio State University United States Jessica N. Fish University of Maryland, College Park United States |
Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Background: Transgender youth of color (TYOC; i.e., racially and ethnically minoritized youth whose gender identities are distinct from their assigned sex at birth) often report disproportionate vulnerability to mental and behavioral health risk relative to both cisgender youth of color and transgender white youth (Andrzejewski et al., 2022). Prior studies link these health disparities with racial discrimination (Thoma & Huebner, 2013) and gender minority stress (Testa et al., 2013), respectively. Yet, intersectionality theory (Crenshaw, 1989) suggests that gender-based and race-based discrimination operate in tandem to shape mental and behavioral health. The goal of the current study was to leverage a large, state-wide dataset from secondary school students across California to extend the current research on intersectional minority stress and health among TYOC. Specifically, we tested three hypotheses related to how multiples experiences of discrimination intersect to shape TYOC mental and behavioral health (Mallory et al., 2021): the additive hypothesis (i.e., racial discrimination and transgender discrimination are independently associated with mental and behavioral health); the multiplicative hypothesis (i.e., racial discrimination and transgender discrimination interact to exacerbate their negative associations with mental and behavioral health), and the inuring hypothesis (i.e., only racial discrimination or transgender discrimination is associated with mental and behavioral health vulnerability). Methods: Data are from the 2017-2019 cycle of the California Healthy Kids Survey, the largest statewide survey of middle and high school students in the U.S. (N = 909,571). Our study sample (n = 5,100) was limited to transgender youth who reported a minoritized racial/ethnic identity (i.e., American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African-American, Latine, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Multiracial). The sample was further limited to students with valid responses to the following items: Binge drinking: “During the past 30 days, on how many days did you use five or more drinks of alcohol in a row, that is, within a couple hours (0=no binge drinking, 1=1 or more days)?”; Depressive symptoms: “In the past year, did you feel so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more that you stopped doing some of your normal activities (0=no, yes=1)?; Bias-based bullying: “During the past 12 months, how many times on school property were you harassed or bullied for any of the following reasons? [Your race, ethnicity, or national origin] and separately, [Your gender].”; Covariates: race/ethnicity, parental education, sex, and survey year. We estimated relations between race-based bullying and gender-based bullying with odds of binge drinking and depressive symptoms using a series of survey-adjusted logistic regression models that mapped onto the additive (main effects), multiplicative (interaction effects), and inuring (main effects and interactions) intersectional hypotheses. Results: Table 1 reports results from models testing the additive (Model 1), multiplicative (Model 2), and inuring (Models 1 and 2) hypotheses. With respect to binge drinking, both race-based bullying and gender-based bullying were independently associated with higher odds of binge drinking, supporting the additive hypothesis. For depressive symptoms (Figure 1), the inuring hypothesis was supported: the interaction between race-based and gender-based bullying was significant such that youth who experienced gender-based bullying reported high rates of depressive symptoms regardless of race-based bullying; among youth who reported no gender-based bullying, experiencing race-based bullying was associated with higher odds of depressive symptoms relative to those who did not experience race-based bullying. Discussion: The current study extends research on intersectional minority stress to suggest that racial discrimination and gender-based discrimination operate independently to influence binge drinking vulnerability. The influence of race-based discrimination on depressive symptoms is contingent on experiences of gender-based discrimination. The means by which racism and transphobia are distinctly normalized among TYOC will be discussed. |
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| Paper #3 | |
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| School support and stress: The experiences of trans and gender expansive youth of color | |
| Author information | Role |
| Robert A. Marx, San José State University, United States | Presenting author |
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Frank J. Peña Graduate Student School of Social Work University of Southern California |
Non-presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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In recent years, a growing number of states in the US have passed or attempted to pass legislation that limits the ability of trans and gender expansive (TGE) young people to gain access to free and appropriate public education. These policies have included eliminating options for using their correct names and pronouns, limiting access to gender-inclusive restrooms and locker rooms, and removing material that affirms and includes queer and trans people. Nonetheless, research has indicated that schools are an important place for TGE youth to gain support, access resources, and engage in healthy development (Sinclair-Palm & Gilbert, 2018). This tension between schools as supportive and detrimental places for TGE youth may be especially acute for TGE youth of color who experience multiple marginalization in school along intersecting lines of race and gender (Snapp et al. 2022). Limited research has explored the experiences of TGE youth of color in schools in their own words, allowing young people to express the complexities and complications that accompany the eight-plus hours a day they spend in public education. To that end, this qualitative study aimed to answer the following research question: how do TGE youth of color understand their experiences in school as both supportive and detrimental? We conducted in-depth, semi-structured qualitative interviews with 18 TGE adolescents and young adults of color (Mage = 20.28 years; range, 15–25 years; SD = 3.3). Participants described their own gender identities and racial and ethnic identities; broadly, six participants indicated they were nonbinary transmasculine, four were nonbinary, four were transmasculine, three were transfeminine, and one was questioning. Eight respondents indicated they were Asian American, eight were Latinx, one was Middle Eastern, and one was Black. Interviews were conducted over Zoom in the winter of 2020 and lasted an average of 40.2 minutes (range: 16-83 minutes). Interviews were transcribed, and two researchers engaged in phenomenological coding to identify key themes. They first bracketed the key research focus, then identified the main horizons, clustered those horizons into themes, and then organized those themes into a coherent explanation of the phenomenon in question (Moustakas, 1994).They independently coded each interview to identify the emergent “horizons,” or key moments needed for understanding, and then met after coding each interview to establish consensus and iteratively develop a formal codebook. In our analysis of these interviews, we identified a number of key themes related to TGE youth of color’s experiences in schools. Our main findings focused on two distinct themes: (1) schools as sources of stress, tension, and difficulty and (2) schools as supportive and prosocial places. In terms of identifying the tensions within their schooling experiences, youth highlighted several important subthemes: (1) forced interactions with people who knew them pre-transition; (2) difficulties accessing bathrooms and other services that are gender-inclusive; and (3) difficulty finding gender-affirming groups and organizations. In terms of the supportive and prosocial aspects of school, TGE youth of color highlighted: (1) the importance of peer interactions and supportive friend groups; (2) the benefit of visibly queer and trans teachers, counselors, and role models; (3) the impact of procedures that enable the use of correct name and pronouns; and (4) gender-affirming groups at school. Participants also highlighted their desires for (1) increased TGE visibility in school; (2) more diverse peer and friend groups; and (3) mentorship from TGE adults. Building on these findings, this presentation will explore implications for researchers, educators, and practitioners who work with queer and trans youth of color. |
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| Paper #4 | |
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| Parenting a Latine transgender teen in Texas: Lived experiences and implications for research | |
| Author information | Role |
| Rachel A. Gonzales, Human Rights Campaign Parents for Trans Equality Council, United States | Presenting author |
| Abstract | |
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Currently, Texas leads the United States in pushing anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, with more than 140 anti-LGBTQ+ bills proposed or passed in the 2023 state legislative session. Alongside the past-year onslaught of cruel and discriminatory laws focused on LGBTQ+ people, racist school policies were proposed and passed, from book bans to legislation to outlaw Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools. The purpose of this presentation is to gain a deeper understanding of how intersectional structural discrimination shapes the lived experiences of the mother of a transgender teenager of color in Texas, as well as her family and community. Using social ecological theory as a framework, the presenter will describe how she and her family navigate racism and transphobic political climates at the individual, family, school, and state levels. For example, she will discuss experiences navigating school systems to ensure safe school environments for her daughter; structural barriers and supports to navigating discriminatory legislation; her family's activism around anti-racist and anti-transphobic youth and family initiatives, both at the local and national levels; raising children of color as a white parent; raising cisgender and transgender children together; unpacking and rethinking what safety looks like for her children; and suggestions for the ways that developmental scientists can contribute to reducing racist, queerphobic, and transphobic structural discrimination, in Texas and beyond. The presentation will conclude with future directions for a developmental science invested in promoting health and thriving for transgender youth of color and their families. Particularly, the speaker will discuss the ways in which racism and transphobia are mutually constitutive, and, as such, require a multi-pronged, unified political approach to eliminate these structural inequities. |
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Where antiracism, queer liberation, and developmental science meet: Multi-method approaches to understanding intersectional child development
Category
Paper Symposium
Description
| Session Title | Where antiracism, queer liberation, and developmental science meet: Multi-method approaches to understanding intersectional child development |