Stress and Adaptation Among Families of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual Youth

Abstract

As research has accumulated on gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) youth, more attention is being directed to their families. Research on the families of GLB youth is limited, although several studies have identified parental reactions to learning their offspring is GLB, and others have attempted to discover patterns of responses within families. Some problems with current research on the families of GLB youth are identified. A human development model is described which can help direct future research efforts.     

On the educational edges of a learning society: the Finnish hinterland as a framework of educational choices for young people

In this article, we examine the school-going and educational choices of youth living in sparsely populated regions of Finland that are located far away from educational institutions. We ask the following question: What kind of concrete impact does the geographic narrowing of educational possibilities have on the lives of youth in remote villages? Thirty-five interviewees (15 boys and 20 girls) between the ages of 14 and 18 were selected for this analysis. According to the results, gender and families’ symbolic resources are still strong predictors of youth’s educational choices; however, in the Finnish hinterland, families’ economic resources become a significant reflection of young people’s realistic educational possibilities. The youth in our analysis can be seen as ‘others’ of the contemporary educational and regional policies – that is, members of a learning society who are living in an educational vacuum and are forced to create their educational paths by making numerous compromises and forgetting many of their personal dreams. Their situation is not unique, as Finland’s wide-ranging neoliberal centralisation policies tend to create educational vacuums in certain regions on the edges of society.     

The Postsecondary Educational Progress of Youth From Immigrant Families

Approximately 650 youth from a variety of ethnic and generational backgrounds participated in a longitudinal study of the postsecondary educational experiences of youth from immigrant families. Youth completed questionnaires and provided official school records in the 12th grade and participated in a phone interview 3 years later. Youth from immigrant families demonstrated the same level of postsecondary educational progress as their peers from American‐born families across a broad array of indicators. In addition, youth from immigrant families were more likely to support their families financially, and some were more likely to live with their parents as compared with those from American‐born families. Variability among those from immigrant families suggested that youth from families with higher incomes, higher levels of parental education, and East Asian backgrounds were more likely to enroll and persist in postsecondary schooling as compared with their peers.     

What's up? What young teens and parents want from youth programs

Young teens and their parents clearly state that the "if you build it, they will come" approach, even if it is well built, is only part of the solution for engaging young people in learning opportunities. Interviews with youth and parents explore what they are doing and what they say they want in their nonschool hours. Opportunities that are flexible, less structured, and more leisure-based emerge as priorities. Although relatively content with the options currently available to them, when pressed, youth and families want more connections between people and age groups as well as more of the free-spirited, organic activities likely to emerge in neighborhoods and communities.     

Cultivating knowledge of resiliency and reintegration among military youth through a national youth leadership program

Youth in military families are frequently challenged by the adjustment demands associated with the deployment and reintegration of a parent. A positive youth development approach was undertaken by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America to develop and implement a Military Teen Ambassadors (MTA) training for youth in military families that would facilitate knowledge of resiliency and reintegration and foster leadership skills to build assets for themselves as well as their peers within their local communities. To determine if MTA was functioning as intended and to refine future programming, this preliminary formative study assessed perceived participant learning outcomes associated with MTA on variables pertaining to knowledge acquisition, perceived skill acquisition, and community needs awareness. Data were collected prior to the training, immediately following the training, and 6 months after the training. Repeated measures analysis indicated significant mean increases over time in knowledge and awareness of resiliency and reintegration; perceived leadership skills; and community awareness. Qualitative findings provided triangulation in the aforementioned areas. These findings strengthen the body of knowledge on resiliency by demonstrating that the 7 Cs model may be an effective strategy to incorporate into leadership development programs seeking to build knowledge of resiliency among military youth. Study limitations, lessons learned, and recommendations for further research are delineated.     

The experiences of adolescents and young adults residing with their families in emergency shelters in Canada

Emergency homeless shelters can be stressful environments for families. They can be associated with emotional distress and feelings of restriction for parents, and with behavioural, social, and developmental challenges for children. However, little is known about the experiences of accompanied youth residing in shelter with their families, as the literature about this age group's experiences of homelessness has mainly focused on unaccompanied youth. Findings from the current study are drawn from qualitative interviews with 16 adolescents and young adults (aged 16–21) who were homeless and living with their families in family homeless shelters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Youth described family homeless shelters as stressful environments but also found that the shelters provided support to them and their families. Youth discussed the various strategies they used to cope in facing the challenges of shelter life. These findings add to our understanding of youth who are homeless and highlight the ways in which they adapt to the challenges of living in a family homeless shelter with their families. Recommendations are included for ways that shelter staff and policymakers can enact operational and systemic changes that could potentially improve the experiences of such youth and their families.     

Biracial youth and families in therapy: issues and interventions

Empirical research and clinical resources focusing specifically on minority youth and families have increased tremendously in the last 2 decades. Despite this trend, certain groups continue to be relatively neglected. In particular, very few resources exist for understanding the unique challenges that often face biracial youth and their families. In this article, we use a nationally representative database to compare functioning in biracial youth to white adolescents and other minority adolescents. Results suggest that biracial/biethnic youth are a particularly vulnerable group in terms of self-reported delinquency, school problems, internalizing symptoms, and self-regard. As a group, they are also more likely to receive some form of psychological intervention. Given these findings and the shortcoming of clinical resources for work with this population, we provide an in-depth discussion of why biracial youth may be particularly vulnerable from a social-constructionist framework and offer several strategies based on narrative family therapy for working with biracial youngsters and their families.     

Definitions and methods for prevention research with youth and families

This paper proposes a new definitional model and improved methods for human services prevention research with youth and families. The proposed model defines prevention as knowledge-based, group intervention aimed at helping at-risk youth and families build skills and social supports to enhance interpersonal and environmental competence and to manage stress. Based on this definition, the authors suggest methods for improving prevention research. Those methods begin with risk assessment. Risk assessment, in turn, provides a basis for three levels of preventive intervention: universal, selective, and indicated. Each intervention level is discussed, with particular attention given to selective and indicated interventions because of their relevance for human services with youth and families. Finally, the paper notes the implications and future research directions for new models and levels of human services prevention with youth and families.     

Conditional Families and Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, and Queer Youth Homelessness: Gender,Sexuality, Family Instability,and Rejection

Existing research on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth homelessness identifies family rejection as a main pathway into homelessness for the youth. This finding, however, can depict people of color or poor people as more prejudiced than White, middle‐class families. In this 18‐month ethnographic study, the author complicates this rejection paradigm through documenting the narratives of 40 LGBTQ youth experiencing homelessness. The author examines how poverty and family instability shaped the conditions that the youth perceived as their being rejected because of their gender and sexuality. This rejection generated strained familial ties within families wherein the ties were already fragile. Likewise, the author shows how being gender expansive marked many youth's experiences of familial abuse and strain. This study proposes the concept of conditional families to capture the social processes of how poverty and family instability shape experiences of gender, sexuality, and rejection for some LGBTQ youth.     

Sense of meaningfulness,sources of meaning,and self-evaluation of economically disadvantaged youth in Hong Kong: implications for youth development programs

This study aimed to explore the direction of youth development programs for economically disadvantaged youth by examining how their sense of meaningfulness and sources of meaning were associated with self-evaluation. Based on a survey design of 373 low-income Chinese adolescents recruited from five schools located in districts with the highest percentages of low-income households in Hong Kong, the results indicate a positive association between their sense of meaningfulness and self-evaluation. The findings also show that the intrinsic sources of meaning (individualism, collectivism, and self-transcendence) were positively associated with self-esteem. The results suggest that extrinsic aspirations were not a major source of positive self-evaluation of Hong Kong Chinese adolescents living in low-income families. On the contrary, they derived life meaning from various intrinsic sources. Their perception of the intrinsic sources of meaning and sense of meaningfulness worked jointly to affect their self-evaluation. Given the value of existential meaning in youth development under economic hardship, practitioners and educators should work with low-income adolescents’ life process of awareness in order to bring them to the possibilities for richer and deeper experiences for personal development, relationship enhancement, community participation, and spirituality enrichment. They should also initiate comprehensive life skills training in all formal, nonformal and informal learning contexts.     

Parent Marital Quality and the Parent–Adolescent Relationship: Effects on Sexual Activity among Adolescents and Youth

The link between growing up outside of an intact family and the likelihood of engaging in risky sexual behaviors as an adolescent has been explored extensively. However, fewer studies examined the likelihood of risky sexual behaviors among adolescents within intact families and what elements of those married-parent families seem to function as protective factors for adolescents. This study looks at relationships within married-parent families—that is, the parent marital relationship, the youth–parent relationship, and the interaction of the two—to identify potential sources of resilience for adolescents that influence their sexual activity. Overall, the youths' relationship with their parents matters more than the parents' relationship with each other, particularly for male youth and youth in stepparent families. Other covariates with notable influence on youths' risky sexual behaviors include parents' marital disruption and religious activity during the teen years. Analyses are based on data from the NLSY97 cohort.     

The Intersection of Social Process and Social Structure Theories to Address Juvenile Crime: Toward a Collaborative Intervention Model

Juvenile crime has long been a pervasive social problem and the target of various intervention efforts. These efforts are ultimately orchestrated by the theoretical lens through which juvenile crime is viewed. This article illustrates the utility of examining theoretical perspectives to inform interventions by presenting a critical analysis and proposed synthesis of two major theories in this area; social learning theory and social disorganization theory. Results of this analysis suggest that both be considered and merged in developing potential solutions. Removing professional silos and developing interdisciplinary approaches aimed at improving outcomes for youth, their families, and communities are critical.     

Empowering Community-Based Programs for Youth Development

This article discusses the need for community-based programs for youth and their families and urges the social work profession to resume its historical leadership in such programs while incorporating recent theory and practice. The authors describe the reasons why social workers abandoned neighborhood-based youth development services, the intended outcomes of such services, and current societal and professional trends that support a revival of social work’s involvement in youth development. They discuss one school of social work’s current participation in a youth agency partnership and examine implications of the suggested revival for social work education. Collaboration among families, schools, diverse community services, agencies, and educators is emphasized.     

Legal Challenges Facing Lesbian and Gay Youth

Legal constraints on minors can be especially problematic for lesbian and gay youth, who frequently lack support from their families and from school authorities, and whose circumstances are often misunderstood or disregarded by authorizes throughout the juvenile system. Legal mechanisms exist or can e crafted to meet the needs of lesbian and gay youth who have been rejected by their families of origin. School welfare and juvenile justice administrators must become sensitive to personal, economic, and societal pressures faced by lesbian and gay youth, and must tailor bureaucratic responses to the youthÆs particular needs. Finally, it is imperative that adults in the lesbian and gay communities take responsibility for protecting the interest of younger members of the community.     

The Effects of Family Structure on Consumption and Exercise Patterns for Adolescent Youth

With over 22 million children considered overweight or obese, research needs to examine factors related to overweightness and obesity. Parents seem to have an influence on their children’s eating behaviors such as taste likes and dislikes and quality and quantity of food. Parents also seem to influence their children’s physical activity levels. A link between physical activity level and obesity exists, indicating that less active children have an increased risk for high BMIs, with children from single parent families having higher than normal BMIs compared to children from two-parent families. The purpose of this study is to examine whether family structure influences eating and exercise patterns of adolescent youth. The current study employed a secondary data analysis utilizing data from the HBSC (N = 6733). According to the data, participants engaged in approximately 3.76 healthy consumption behaviors per week and moderate levels of exercise (mean = 2.38). The linear regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between family structure and consumption patterns, as youth from single parent families, stepparent families, and multigenerational families have fewer healthy consumption patterns (?.256, ?.142, and ?.164, respectively) compared to youth from two-parent families. Healthy eating initiatives need to target both parents and children, as a relationship between consumption patterns and family structure exists. Additionally, future research needs to examine initiatives targeted at promoting physical activity, particularly among overweight and obese youth who are less likely to engage in physical activity.     

The Role of Social Support in the Transition From Foster Care to Emerging Adulthood

Many youth leave foster care with disrupted relationships with their family and others in their social networks. Previous research has documented the severe adversity that former foster youth face in the transition to young adulthood. Perhaps some difficulties are at least partially related to a lack of social support that results from frayed relationships. This article reviews the literature on social support, particularly as it relates to foster youth, for the purpose of examining the role that formal and informal supports play in the transition to adulthood. The implications of this literature for successful transitions for former foster youth are discussed, as well as ways child welfare workers can engage youth and their families, and help them develop supportive social networks.     

A narrative inquiry into familial and school curriculum making: attending to multiple worlds of Aboriginal youth and families

In this paper we draw upon a narrative inquiry alongside urban Aboriginal youth and their families in western Canada; the overall goal of our inquiry was to understand their educational and schooling experiences. Shifting our focus from schools as the only place where curriculum is made, we draw on the conceptualization of children, youth, and families as also engaged as curriculum makers in homes and in communities and in the in-between places of homes and schools. In this paper we explore the multiple curriculum-making worlds of Lane and Donovan, two Aboriginal youth. As part of understanding the multiple worlds and relationships between, and intersections of, multiple worlds, we draw on Lugones' concept of world traveling. We contemplate the importance of understanding lives over time, in geographic places, and social contexts. We wonder how the worlds youth inhabit are shaped by institutional, social, political, and institutional stories, and how these larger narratives shape the ways in which we attend to the lives of youth.     

Co-production dynamics and time dollar programs in community-based child welfare initiatives for hard-to-serve youth and families

Hard-to-serve youth and families residing in high-poverty communities often have multiple, interlocking needs. These needs necessitate complex service models. The complex model described in this article combines a unique approach to wraparound services with a coproduction framework and related theories. The model aims to improve outcomes for vulnerable youth and their families, simultaneously strengthening communities by employing residents and engaging participants in community service. Examples derived from current pilot projects illustrate co-production's importance for other child welfare initiatives.     

How are we doing? Results of receiving family-driven feedback on alliances between families and residential treatment staff over time

Developing working alliances and actively engaging families is essential for youth success in residential treatment. Ideally, these alliances can be fostered by sharing feedback with residential staff about their alliances with families over time to encourage more family engagement and better outcomes for families of youth in treatment. This study measured alliances between families and residential treatment family workers and assessed the effectiveness of an unobtrusive method of sharing working alliance feedback with residential treatment staff. Results revealed that family members rated the working alliance higher than family workers, and that these discrepancies in scores converged over time. In addition, higher family member ratings of the alliance predicted higher family functioning, and longer time in treatment resulted in higher family functioning scores. Lastly, receiving feedback about the working alliance resulted in higher family member ratings of the alliance with their family worker.