EDIT Program Secures $2.7 Million Grant to Study Alcohol Use Disparities Among Sexual Minority Youth
- Determine the magnitude of alcohol use disparities between SMY and heterosexual youth, both cross-sectionally and over time, using an intersectional lens.
- Apply complex statistical methodologies to investigate associations between alcohol use classes and HIV vulnerability at the intersections of sex, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity.
- Identify the impact of regional, school-based, and structural-level factors on alcohol use and HIV vulnerability between SMY and their heterosexual peers, employing an intersectional lens.
The researchers stressed how critical an intersectional lens is to understanding alcohol use among sexual minority youth, especially youth who experience multiple forms of marginalization based on sex, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. “A major focus of this grant is on intersectionality, particularly on groups that are often dropped or combined due to small sample sizes,” said Phillips, the project’s principal investigator (PI). “Since our pooled YRBS dataset contains over one million youth, we will actually have the ability to look at alcohol use disparities among groups such as American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian youth who also identify as gay/lesbian or bisexual. Very little is known about health disparities experienced by youth at the intersection of these minoritized identities, and we're hopeful that our team will be able to start addressing this substantial literature gap.”
Morgan Philbin, Ph.D.[/caption] “The YRBS has allowed us to explore how structural factors (e.g., state-level policies and school climates) affect sexual health and substance use outcomes for racial/ethnic and sexual minority youth, a focus we will continue with this grant. In addition, being able to extend this by including more years will allow us to apply an intersectional lens to this research and bring us closer to understanding these youths’ holistic experiences with multiple marginalized identities,” said Morgan Philbin, Ph.D., assistant professor at Columbia University School of Public Health and co-investigator on the project. This project will expand the research methods used to analyze data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to now employ advanced methods of inquiry, including multilevel modeling to determine jurisdictional and temporal associations with alcohol use and disparities in HIV risk, as well as latent class analysis to describe alcohol use classes and their association with a young person’s minority status.
“This data will allow us unprecedented ability to look at how the health of SGM youth has changed over time. I am particularly interested in examining how state-level differences have led to shifts in health and being able to quantify the impact of high-level policies on the health of marginalized populations,” said Michelle Birkett, Ph.D., a co-investigator and director of ISGMH’s CONNECT Program. “One of the most exciting parts of the new YRBS grant is an expanded focus about how public health laws and policies impact the health of sexual minority youth over time. Our team will be building new policy databases and developing new methods to apply an intersectional lens to policy analyses to understand how health policies may differentially impact multiply marginalized SMY,” said Lauren Beach, J.D., Ph.D., a co-investigator and director of ISGMH’s EDIT Program.
Ultimately, the findings from this research will help to create guidance for effective interventions to minimize the risks associated with alcohol use among vulnerable youth and to ensure equitable health outcomes. One way that the investigators are making sure that sexual minority youth not only benefit from, but actively inform, research is by partnering with the organization YouthLink, a program of Centerlink, to launch a series of Youth Research Workshops. “In my work with youth over the last decade, I've seen that they are often demotivated by the doom messages in dissemination products, but often don't have the research skills to know how to tell researchers to do a better job. These YRWs are designed to provide SGM youth across the country with a primer on research literacy and empower them to help influence the way that we message our results from the YRBS,” said Phillips.
Top ISGMH Publications on the Youth Risk Behavior Survey
Sexual Identity and Behavior Among U.S. High School Students, 2005–2015 Phillips II G, Beach LB, Turner B, Feinstein BA, Marro R, Philbin MM, Salamanca P, Felt D, Birkett M Archives of Sexual Behavior
Risk Factors for Diabetes are Higher Among Non-Heterosexual US High School Students Beach LB, Turner B, Felt D, Marro R, Phillips II G Pediatric Diabetes
Differential Decline in Illicit Drug Use by Sexual Identity Among United States High School Students, 2005–2017 Felt D, Turner B, Wang X, Ruprecht MM, Lauren BB, Philbin M, Birkett M, Phillips II G LGBT Health
Alcohol Use and Suicidality by Sexual Orientation Among U.S. Youth, 2009–2017 Phillips II G, Turner B, Felt D, Marro R, Wang X, Ruprecht M, Broschart J, Beach LB American Journal of Preventive Medicine
LGB-Affirming School Climates and Sexual Health Outcomes Among U.S. High School Students 2015-2017: Differences by Sex and Sexual Identity Philbin MM, Wang X, Feaster DJ, LaBossier NJ, Phillips II G Journal of Adolescent Health