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Role of Alcohol Disparities in HIV Risk Among Sexual Minority Youth

The Role of Alcohol Disparities in HIV Risk Among Sexual Minority Youth is a secondary data analysis project which uses data from CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) to study population-level differences in health outcomes between heterosexual and sexual minority youth, with an emphasis on alcohol- and HIV-related outcomes. 

Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youths in the US, and prevalence of alcohol use is disproportionately higher among sexual minority youth than among their heterosexual peers. This project will utilize data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey to assess alcohol use disparities across jurisdictions and time points.

The YRBS is a national biennial survey of high school students that has only recently begun to include measures of sexual identity and behavior. Although several states and jurisdictions assessed these sexual minority items before, 2015 marks the first time that they were asked within the National YRBS. In addition to national data, we will pool Local YRBS data from 2005 through 2017 for jurisdictions that measured sexual minority status to investigate jurisdictional and temporal associations. Additional study aims are to identify structural factors (laws, resource access, etc.) that may influence alcohol use and to study event-level associations between alcohol use and condomless sex.

Featured Publications

At-School Victimization and Alcohol Use Among Minoritized U.S. Youth, 2009-2017. Caleb W Curry, Lauren B Beach, Xinzi Wang, Megan M Ruprecht, Dylan Felt, Ysabel Beatrice Floresca, Gregory L Phillips II. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. 2022.

Someone to talk to: the association of mentorship and cyberbullying with suicidality among US high school students. Liliana Aguayo, Lauren B Beach, Xinzi Wang, Megan M Ruprecht, Dylan Felt, Kiarri N Kershaw, Matthew M Davis, Gregory Phillips II. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. 2022.

LGB-Affirming School Climates and Sexual Health Outcomes Among U.S. High School Students 2015-2017: Differences by Sex and Sexual Identity. Morgan M Philbin, Xinzi Wang, Daniel J Feaster, Natalie J LaBossier, Gregory Phillips II. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2021.

Physical Inactivity and the Role of Bullying Among Gender Minority Youth Participating in the 2017 and 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Raina V Voss, Lisa M Kuhns, Gregory Phillips II, Xinzi Wang, Sigrid F Wolf, Robert Garofalo, Sari Reisner, Lauren B Beach. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2023