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 non-heterosexual 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 non-heterosexual 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 items before, 2015 marks the first time that they were asked within the National YRBS. 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
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.