Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Queer,and Questioning Youths' Perspectives of Inclusive School-Based Sexuality Education

Sexuality education is perceived as one way to prevent unhealthy sexual behaviors. However, current sexuality education materials are not tailored to fit the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth, and many have been critiqued for disenfranchising these populations. This study solicited the perspectives of LGBTQ youth on their experiences with school-based sexuality education in order to create a framework of LGBTQ-inclusive sexuality education. Five semistructured focus groups (N = 30 LGBTQ participants) were conducted to investigate the sexuality education experiences of LGBTQ youth and to solicit youth suggestions for improving the inclusiveness of sexuality education curricula. Results indicate that LGBTQ youth perceive current sexuality education as primarily “exclusive,” although examples of “inclusive” sexuality education were provided. In addition, participants provided suggestions for creating a more inclusive experience, such as directly discussing LGBTQ issues, emphasizing sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention over pregnancy prevention, and addressing healthy relationships. Educators and policymakers can use these ideas to help improve the quality of sexuality education—not only to make it more inclusive for LGBTQ youth but to make sexuality education more inclusive for all young people.     

Negotiating Emotional Support: Sober Gay Latinos and Their Families

This study explores how sober gay Latino men obtain support from their families. Familial ties can be a protective health factor, yet many gay Latinos experience rejection from family members because of their sexuality. There are very few studies that examine the extent and quality of emotional support from kin for this population. Understanding family dynamics within the context of recovery and sexuality can increase our understanding of how to leverage family ties to develop alcohol abuse interventions. The study was conducted via semistructured interviews with 30 sober gay Latinos using a grounded theory approach. Analyses of the qualitative data identified the following themes: family values shaped the participants’ perception of their range of choices and emotional responses; participants reported feeling loved and supported even when sexuality was not discussed with parents; and family support for sobriety is essential. Findings suggest that familial ties shape perceptions of support and importance of disclosing sexual identity. Family support often results from agreements about sexual identity disclosure, and some families can overcome cultural and religious taboos on sexuality. Future studies should investigate families that negotiate acceptance with their gay members, and whether they exhibit heterosexual biases that may influence the psychological stress of gay Latino men who wish to be sober.     

The lived experiences of becoming a homeless person with addiction in Tehran: how they are withdrawn from the mainstream community?

Understanding the experiences of street addicted people can help clarify the process of engaging people with this social problem. This study aims to discover the challenges of drug-dependent street people by exploring their lived experiences. This study was conducted using content analysis of qualitative interviews with 22 street recruited from within compulsory drug treatment centers in Tehran. Participants were selected through purposive sampling and their experiences of homelessness and addiction were collected through a semi-structured interview. After analyzing the data, three categories and eight sub-categories were determined. The main categories included instability, social distrust, and economic vulnerability. Instability includes experiences such as rejection from their home, street attraction, and avoiding returning home. The social distrust theme consists of experiencing the stigma related to addiction and high-risk behaviors. The economic vulnerability encompasses gradual capital loss and weakening their work status in the context of a weak economic foundation. Dependent drug use added to those isolating experiences leads to weakened family ties, and social and economic interactions and finally results in being disconnected completely from the community mainstream.     

Foster family acceptance: Understanding the role of foster family acceptance in the lives of LGBTQ youth

LGBTQ youth in the child welfare system have historically received very little attention. The limited research available suggests that they encounter a number of disparities and double standards when compared to straight youth. The current study examines the role that foster family acceptance plays in the lives of LGBTQ youth as they navigate the child welfare system. The experiences of LGBTQ foster care alumni who had accepting foster family experiences are compared to those who had rejecting experiences. Findings suggest that foster family acceptance plays a pivotal role in creating an affirming and inclusive environment for LGBTQ youth. Similarly, findings provide further evidence for the need to educate, train, and recruit affirming and accepting foster families.     

Feminist and queer criminology: A vital place for theorizing LGBTQ youth

Creating safe environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) youth has become a significant public health concern. Despite the disparities in the risk factors associated with identifying as a member of the LGBTQ community, the theoretical frameworks for understanding these issues, particularly within criminology, have been limited. The purpose of this work is to review the historical treatment of gender and sexual orientation within criminology. More specifically, this work reviews how gender was introduced into criminology through the work of feminist criminology, followed by the need for theorization that further analyzed sexual orientation. This then became the focus of queer criminology. After tracing the historical development of gender and sexual orientation, the author uses the theoretical foundations of both to show how it applies to recognizing the issues faced by LGBTQ youth. Finally, the author discusses why consideration of these frameworks is paramount in understanding the issues faced by LGBTQ youth, as well as how such consideration and understanding can help mend the existing gap in providing safer environments for LGBTQ youth.     

Queer youth,intoxication and queer drinking spaces

Research on intoxicating substances and gender has developed considerably in the last 30 years, especially in the social sciences as feminist scholars highlighted the contradictory discourses about young women’s intoxication. Nevertheless, there still remain significant gaps if we are to fully understand the role and meaning of intoxication for all young people and not merely for heterosexual, cisgender young people. As a way of exploring the possible limitations of this legacy, we will examine the qualitative data from 52 in-depth interviews with self-identified LGBTQ young people. Our analysis explores the relationships between meanings of intoxication and sexual and gender identities, drinking spaces, and the extent to which notions of masculinity and femininity influence alcohol consumption and drinking practices among LGBTQ youth. As gender expressions among young people, especially those who identify as LGBTQ, become increasingly nuanced and fluid, understanding the role of social and cultural practices of alcohol consumption in the performance of sexual and gender identities may increase our understanding of the ways in which sexuality and gender influence alcohol consumption.     

Partner Violence Victimization Among Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, and Queer Youth: Associations Among Risk Factors

Literature shows that youth who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) experience high rates of victimization across various contexts, though there is little research specific to partner violence victimization. Given the deleterious effects of partner violence seen in both youth generally and LGBTQ adults, it is imperative to investigate partner violence among LGBTQ youth. The authors investigated the prevalence of partner violence among a community sample of LGBTQ youth (N = 140) and examined potential correlates of said violence. Approximately half of the participants had ever experienced some form of partner violence. Rates of ever experiencing partner violence were approximately 2.5 times higher for youth who had binge drank in the past month or ever experienced familial abuse and nearly three times higher for youth who had experienced an episode of homelessness in the past year. Implications for professionals who serve LGBTQ youth are discussed.     

Family Matters: Research on Family Ties and Health, 2010 to 2020

Family ties have wide-ranging consequences for health, for better and for worse. This decade review uses a life course perspective to frame significant advances in research on the effects of family structure and transitions (e.g., marital status) and family dynamics and quality (e.g., emotional support from family members) on health across the life course. Significant advances include the linking of childhood family experiences to health at older ages, identification of biosocial processes that explain how family ties influence health throughout life, research on social contagion showing how family members influence one another's health, and attention to diversity in family and health dynamics, including gender, sexuality, socioeconomic, and racial diversity. Significant innovations in methods include dyadic and family-level analysis and causal inference strategies. The review concludes by identifying directions for future research on families and health, advocating for a “family biography” framework to guide future research, and calling for more research specifically designed to assess policies that affect families and their health from childhood into later life.     

The need for safe spaces: Exploring the experiences of homeless LGBTQ youth in shelters

Studies indicate LGBTQ youth are at higher risk of homelessness (2–13 times) than their heterosexual cisgender counterparts and that they represent a substantial portion of youth utilizing housing and shelter services. Some authors have provided anecdotal (rather than empirical) examples of LGBTQ youth experiencing abuse or mistreatment in shelters; most studies focusing on LGBTQ homeless youth have been conducted in large cities and have rarely collected data from both youth and providers. Using an exploratory, grounded theory approach, this study utilized data from interviews with LGBTQ youth with a history of homelessness as well as service providers working with this population in a mid-sized Northeastern city. Findings suggest youth experience multiple challenges, barriers, and mistreatment in the shelters; further, data suggests several ideas about how to transform shelters to better meet the needs of LGBTQ youth.     

The Unaccommodated Woman: Home, Homelessness and Identity

'Home' and 'homelessness' serve to define each other at a phenomenological level. For the settled population, homelessness is a source of fascination and repulsion, an embodiment of their fears (of poverty and alienation) and their dreams (of freedom and simplicity). The 'unaccommodated woman' in particular is an aberration and a contradiction in terms: the gender renegade who has rejected, or been rejected by, traditional family and domestic structures.
The home has been constructed as a source of identity and as an essential foundation of social order. Such order, however, is based on the experiences of many women of the home as a prison. These 'homeless-at-home' women experience abuse, violence and the suppression of self within the supposed safe haven of the domestic home. The article draws on the author's own ethnographic research with homeless women and men within the Three Cities Project on youth homelessness and crime, and concludes by examining two ways of being homeless: identity work and the management of bodily space.     

Exploring the Experiences of Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Questioning Adolescents in Foster Care

This article is based on the findings from a subset of gender identity and sexual orientation questions from The Casey Field Office Mental Health Study (CFOMH). It aims to contribute the experiences of youth in the care of Casey Family Programs to the increasing body of research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) youth in foster care, as well as inform future studies in this area. The CFOMH study interviewed 188 adolescents ages 14 to 17 who were receiving foster care services from Casey Family Programs in 2006. The experiences in care of youth who identified as LGBQ (n = 10) are presented in narrative form, along with data from all youth in care (N = 188) regarding their perceptions of the foster care environment for LGBTQ youth. These findings are intended to underscore the need to conduct a larger, more in-depth study of the experiences of LGBTQ youth in foster care and the environment that foster care provides for them.     

Multigenerational Punishment: Shared Experiences of Undocumented Immigration Status Within Mixed‐Status Families

Estimates suggest that approximately 16.6 million people in the United States are members of mixed‐status families composed of undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens or documented immigrants. Drawing on interviews with 32 undocumented 1.5‐generation parents, the author explores how immigration laws affect undocumented parents and their citizen children. She finds that U.S. citizen children and their undocumented parents often share in the risks and limitations associated with undocumented immigration status. She conceptualizes this phenomenon as multigenerational punishment, a distinct form of legal violence wherein the sanctions intended for a specific population spill over to negatively affect individuals who are not targeted by laws. Though not restricted to familial relationships, multigenerational punishment tends to occur within families because of the strong social ties, sustained day‐to‐day interactions, and dependent relationships found among family members. This sheds light on how laws can further the reproduction of inequality within families and over generations.     

A habitus of instability: youth homelessness and instability

This research introduces the concept of a habitus of insecurity to account for the lives of homeless young people. It outlines how conditions of existence are internalised and how homeless young people come to expect and in turn recreate instability in their lives. This research addresses the internalisation and naturalisation of experiences of instability, insecurity and marginalisation and how people can come to subjectively aspire to what they are socialised to see as objectively probable or ‘for the likes of them'. The research draws on ethnographic research and participant observation to examine the complex lives of homeless young people and how they are shaped by instability and insecurity inculcated before, during and after experiences of homelessness. This research highlights that people should not be defined merely by their experiences of homelessness of housing status, but by the complex array of conditions that shape their lives.     

Lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender families and health

Research consistently demonstrates that family relationships are key determinants of health, but most research on health and families focuses on a heterosexual and cisgender context. Sexual and gender identities often are overlooked or erased in family and health research. We present an overview of the current state of research on LGBT families and health, using a life course approach and pointing to the ways that LGBT people's experiences of families occur within a broader social structural context, with implications for their health and the health of their family members. We focus on parenthood, parent–child ties, intimate relationships, and caregiving. We also identify two theoretical obstacles for studies of LGBT families and health as well as important research areas for moving forward, such as the inclusion of non‐binary and queer identities in our studies of family and health. Incorporation of LGBT and other queer families and family forms into our health research interrogates assumptions within family and health research and offers insight into how to move the field forward.     

Homelessness and aging out of foster care: A national comparison of child welfare-involved adolescents

The present study represents the first large-scale, prospective comparison to test whether aging out of foster care contributes to homelessness risk in emerging adulthood. A nationally representative sample of adolescents investigated by the child welfare system in 2008 to 2009 from the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being Study (NSCAW II) reported experiences of housing problems at 18- and 36-month follow-ups. Latent class analyses identified subtypes of housing problems, including literal homelessness, housing instability, and stable housing. Regressions predicted subgroup membership based on aging out experiences, receipt of foster care services, and youth and county characteristics. Youth who reunified after out-of-home placement in adolescence exhibited the lowest probability of literal homelessness, while youth who aged out experienced similar rates of literal homelessness as youth investigated by child welfare but never placed out of home. No differences existed between groups on prevalence of unstable housing. Exposure to independent living services and extended foster care did not relate with homelessness prevention. Findings emphasize the developmental importance of families in promoting housing stability in the transition to adulthood, while questioning child welfare current focus on preparing foster youth to live.     

‘Su guagua no escucha nada’: Ecuadorian families confronting the deafness of a child

In accordance with the social model of disability, this study proceeded from the assumption that parents’ experiences of a child’s hearing impairment reflect the circumstances of their lives rather than anything innate in the impairment itself. Few studies have explored the influence both of culture and social structure and of families’ economic and social resources. We studied families’ experiences of the diagnosis of hearing loss in Ecuador, a multicultural country in which family ties are strong but where pronounced social and economic inequalities persist and where many people have no access to health care. The study shows how inequality – and in particular the experience of poverty – shapes families’ experiences of acquiring a diagnosis and of trying to accommodate a child with special needs.     

Achieving permanency for LGBTQ youth

This article brings together two significant efforts in the child welfare field: achieving permanence for youth in out-of-home care and meeting the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth. During the past several years, a national movement has taken place to assure all children and youth have a permanent family connection before leaving the child welfare system; however, LGBTQ youth are not routinely included in the permanency discussions. At the same time, efforts in addressing the needs of LGBTQ youth have increased, but permanency is rarely mentioned as a need. This article offers models of permanence and practices to facilitate permanence with LGBTQ youth and their families. It also offers a youth-driven, individualized process, using youth development principles to achieve relational, physical, and legal permanence. Reunification efforts are discussed, including services, supports, and education required for youth to return to their family of origin. For those who cannot return home, other family resources are explored. The article also discusses cultural issues as they affect permanence for LGBTQ youth, and, finally, addresses the need for ongoing support services to sustain and support permanency.