Historically, YRBS and other studies have gathered data on lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth but have not included questions about transgender and questioning/queer youth. As that changes and data becomes available, this content will be updated to include information regarding transgender and questioning/queer youth.
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Most lesbian, gay, bisexual, (LGB) youth are happy and thrive during their adolescent years. Having a school that creates a safe and supportive learning environment for all students and having caring and accepting parents are especially important. Positive environments can help all youth achieve good grades and maintain good mental and physical health. However, some LGB youth are more likely than their heterosexual peers to experience negative health and life outcomes.
Analyses of these suicidal ideation and behavior variables included examining associations between each item and demographic characteristics, including sex (male/female), race/ethnicity (non-Hispanic white [white], non-Hispanic black [black], or Hispanic), grade (9, 10, 11, or 12), sexual identity (heterosexual; lesbian, gay, or bisexual [LGB]; or not sure), and sex of sexual contacts (sexual contact with only the opposite sex, sexual contact with only the same sex or both sexes, or no sexual contact). Associations by race/ethnicity, grade, sexual identity, and sex of sexual contacts were calculated for the overall study population but also separately for male and female students. Statistical differences were determined by using chi-square analyses at the p
To understand the context of a person's life course, it is critical to understand the age cohort to which that individual belongs. Youth growing up today will see changes that earlier generations of lesbians and gay men would never have expected in their lifetimes, including politicians, business leaders, and educators who are openly gay; marriage between same-sex couples; and an evolving popular and artistic culture that provides many positive portrayals of lesbian and gay characters in movies and plays, on television, and in literature. Today's youth are able to use the Internet to retrieve online information about LGBT issues, providing social networking opportunities and access to knowledge in a way that was not available to older cohorts. At the same time, young LGBT people searching the Internet and interacting with their peers will be aware of the pervasive negative views of sexual and gender minorities.
Most of the research that has been conducted on mental health disorders among LGBT youth has relied on symptom or distress scales rather than formal clinical diagnoses (Mustanski et al., 2010b). To the committee's knowledge, only two published studies have assessed LGBT adolescents diagnostically. Fergusson and colleagues (1999) conducted a study in New Zealand on the risk of psychiatric disorder and suicidal behavior using data from a birth cohort. They found that, relative to youth who identified as heterosexual, youth who identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual were between 1.8 and 2.9 times more likely to experience generalized anxiety disorder, major depression, and conduct disorder. It should be noted, however, that of the 1,007 youth surveyed, only 28 self-identified as LGB or described past relationships with same-sex partners (Fergusson et al., 1999).
Very little research has been conducted on the relationship between teen pregnancy and sexual orientation, although there is some indication that lesbian and bisexual adolescents may have at least the same and possibly an increased likelihood of pregnancy compared with heterosexual adolescents. Saewyc and colleagues (1999) conducted a secondary analysis of a subsample of 12- to 19-year-old young women from the 1987 Minnesota Adolescent Health Survey (n = 3,816) and found that self-identified lesbians and bisexual females (samples combined for analysis, n = 182) were just as likely as their heterosexual counterparts (n = 1,881) to have heterosexual intercourse but much more likely to have gotten pregnant.
In 2008, Saewyc and colleagues (2008) performed secondary analyses on three different waves of the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey (1992, 1998, and 2003 waves). Sexual orientation in 7th- to 12th-grade youth was measured by means of self-assessment in a paper-and-pencil survey. Gay and bisexual male students were more likely than heterosexual male students to have ever had sexual intercourse. They were also more likely to have been responsible for a pregnancy, to report having had two or more sexual partners, and to report first intercourse before age 14. Lesbian and bisexual female students were more likely than heterosexual female students to have ever had heterosexual intercourse, had higher odds of having been pregnant, were more likely to have had heterosexual intercourse before age 14, and were more likely to have had two or more sexual partners.
Concerns about their safety have consequences for the academic achievement of LGBT youth. O'Shaughnessy and colleagues (2004) examined data from the 2002 California Healthy Kids Survey (n = 237,544) and the 2003 Preventing School Harassment Survey (n = 634) and found that, compared with other students, LGBT students and students perceived to be sexual minorities were more likely to report low grades, to miss school because they felt unsafe, and to report less support from teachers and other adults. Similarly, using data from the 1995 wave of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Russell and colleagues (2001) found that, compared with heterosexual girls, sexual-minority girls as identified by same-sex attraction may hold less positive attitudes about school and may be more likely to have school problems. Both bisexual-attracted boys and girls appear to be significantly more likely to have school troubles and lower grade point averages. The study did not find significant differences in school outcomes or attitudes between heterosexual boys and boys reporting exclusively same-sex attraction.
Differences in drug use and abuse based on sex may exist among LGB youth. In the previously mentioned study by Ford and Jasinski (2006), bisexual females were more likely than either heterosexual or homosexual students to have used marijuana and other illicit drugs. Other studies support this finding, with self-identified and behaviorally bisexual students, especially females, being more likely than any other group (e.g., lesbian, gay, heterosexual) to report drug use (Eisenberg and Wechsler, 2003a; Russell et al., 2002). On the other hand, McCabe and colleagues (2005) did not find a significant difference in rates of illicit drug use among homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual college males.
Drawing on population-based data obtained from students in 7th through 12th grades in British Columbia, Poon and Saewyc (2009) compared adolescents from rural and urban areas. They found differences between the groups on some health outcomes (for example, rural sexual-minority youth were more likely than their urban peers to binge drink) and further noted that the interaction between gender and location produced different outcomes. Rural boys were more likely to have considered or attempted suicide in the past year than rural girls or urban boys, and rural girls were more likely than urban girls or rural boys to have been physically assaulted at school.
Some terms you may have heard include lesbian (a woman attracted only to women), gay (a man attracted only to men; also used as another term for lesbian), bisexual (a person attracted to both male and female genders), heterosexual (a person attracted to the opposite gender) and pansexual (a person attracted to another person without regard for gender). Often, sexual orientation and gender identity get lumped together by the use of the abbreviation LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning).
Mr. DENIZET-LEWIS: Well, I mean, it depends how you want to look at it. I mean, both realities are going on. It's a very nuanced story. I mean, one of the interesting things that we have to look at is this, is that much of the anti-gay bullying and anti-gay harassment that's going on in middle schools and high school is more about gender non-conformity than it really is about being gay or lesbian. And by that I mean the kids who often get it the worst are bullies who are perceived as feminine and girls who are not perceived as feminine. And they tend to be the ones who get the most harassment in schools, and I spoke to kids who were more gender typical in the way they manifested, and they had a lot easier time.
On the one hand, I take your point. You're saying listen, if a kid came home, as my six-year-old did, my six-year-old soon recently did, and say, oh, I'm going to marry Kendell(ph) when I grow up. And I said well, how do you know? And he says, well, she told me. You know, I wouldn't say how do you know you really like girls? I'd say oh, that's nice, dear. But you say that when it comes to kids who say that they are gay, it's almost like we want to talk them out of it. Is it that being gay or lesbian is still enough of a pariah identity that parents want to take it off the table as long as they can, or is it just that parents really feel that all kids are sexualized too early these days, and they don't want their kids at this age thinking about, you know, hooking up?
Mr. DENIZET-LEWIS: I think that there's no doubt that sort of as you have more positive portrayals and, I would say, accurate portrayals of gay and lesbian life in the media, and kids can go online and find all kinds of resources, that there's no doubt that that's going to have an effect on kids, and that they're going to possibly come out earlier because of that.
I mean, it's really true. And so what's remarkable, now, is I think we're going to see, as more and more kids come out younger and are sort of able to have a normal adolescence in the sense that, you know, I talked to kids who were having arguments with their parents about going on dates when they're 15 or 16 or 17 or going to the prom or sort of, you know, having their normal adolescence, I think it's going to create an entirely different kind of gay and lesbian adult in the next 10, 20, 30 years. 2ff7e9595c
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