Bisexual Adolescents Research Articles

LGBTQ Responsive School Counseling Supervision

There remains a lag in the development and implementation of effective strategies to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents in schools. Although practitioners and scholars have begun to discuss how school counselors can provide effective services for LGBTQ students, there is minimal supervision literature to guide this work. This article presents an application of supervision that integrates LGBTQ Responsive School Counseling across the supervision of a comprehensive developmental school counseling program. Using the American School Counseling Association's National Model as a guideline, the authors provide a vehicle for supervisors to structure their work with professional school counselors.

‘Coming out’ during adolescence: How do parental attitudes towards non-heterosexuality affect the mental health and well-being of their lesbian, gay, or bisexual offspring?

The developmental context of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents remains significantly underresearched, despite reliable evidence that parents significantly affect the mental health and well-being of their offspring. This literature review suggests that negative parental attitudes towards non-heterosexuality are associated with youth homelessness, psychological conflict and mental health problems in LGB adolescents. Conversely, sexuality-specific family acceptance and support during adolescence appears to be associated with positive mental health outcomes and higher levels of well-being in LGB offspring. The review highlights the need for parent-based psychological interventions which facilitate parental acceptance and encourage active support of non-heterosexual offspring. Recommendations for future research are offered.

How Depressed and Suicidal Sexual Minority Adolescents Understand the Causes of Their Distress

This study examined how lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents reporting clinically significant depressive and suicidal symptoms understand the causes of their psychological distress. The role of the quality of the adolescent-parent relationship as a risk or protective factor was explored. Ten qualitative interviews were analyzed using the Consensual Qualitative Research method. Results showed that adolescents viewed family rejection of sexual orientation, extra-familial LGB related victimization, and non-LGB related negative family life events as the most common causes of their psychological distress. Most of the adolescents also reported experiencing support from at least one family member, and half reported experiencing significant extra-familial (e.g., peers, school counselor) support. Almost all of the adolescents reported wishing that their relationships with their parents were closer and characterized by more acceptance, as well as a willingness to participate in family therapy to improve their relationships with their parents. Clinical implications are discussed.

RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENT SEXUAL ORIENTATION: DEVELOPMENT, HEALTH DISPARITIES, STIGMA AND RESILIENCE.

The decade between 1998 and 2008 saw rapid increases in research on adolescent sexual orientation development and related health issues, both in quantity and in quality of studies. While much of the research originated in North America, studies from other countries also contributed to emerging understanding of developmental trajectories and social influences on the health of sexual minority adolescents. This paper reviews the body of research from the past decade on adolescent sexual orientation, focused on issues of measurement, developmental trajectories, evidence related to health disparities, and the risks and protective factors that help explain the health and developmental challenges some lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents experience. Although many sexual minority adolescents face stigma and rejection within their families, their schools, or their communities, it should be noted that most successfully navigate the developmental tasks of adolescence, and attain similar levels of health and well-being as their heterosexual peers, often despite the stigma and discrimination they encounter. Further research is needed to understand population trends as well as individual patterns of development; cultural variations in both development and health disparities; the interplay of general and unique risk factors that contribute to various health disparities and protective factors that buffer those risks; and interventions to promote the healthy development of sexual minority adolescents.

Sense of Belonging and Depressive Symptoms Among GLB Adolescents

Research has indicated that gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) adolescents are at an increased risk of mental health problems. Research has also indicated that experiencing a sense of belonging is important for one's mental health. This study investigated sense of belonging to the general community and sense of belonging to a GLB specific youth group (Minus18) as predictors of depressive symptoms among self-identified GLB adolescents (N = 99). Participants completed the Sense of Belonging Instrument and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Results showed that although sense of belonging to the general community and sense of belonging to the Minus18 community were both directly related to depression, only sense of belonging to the general community contributed significantly to the prediction of depression when they were entered simultaneously in a regression analysis. Results also showed that sense of belonging to the general community mediated the relation between sense of belonging to the Minus18 community and depression. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing sense of belonging to a GLB-specific community are likely to be of indirect benefit to the mental health of GLB adolescents, whereas interventions aimed at increasing sense of belonging to the general community are likely to be of direct benefit to the mental health of GLB adolescents.

A Systematic Review of Parental Influences on the Health and Well-Being of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Youth: Time for a New Public Health Research and Practice Agenda

Relatively little is known about how parents influence the health and well-being of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and young adults. This gap has led to a paucity of parent-based interventions for LGB young people. A systematic literature review on parental influences on the health of LGB youth was conducted to better understand how to develop a focused program of applied public health research. Five specific areas of health among LGB young people aged 10-24years old were examined: (a) sexual behavior; (b) substance use; (c) violence and victimization; (d) mental health; and (e) suicide. A total of 31 quantitative articles were reviewed, the majority of which were cross-sectional and relied on convenience samples. Results indicated a trend to focus on negative, and not positive, parental influences. Other gaps included a dearth of research on sexual behavior, substance use, and violence/victimization; limited research on ethnic minority youth and on parental influences identified as important in the broader prevention science literature; and no studies reporting parent perspectives. The review highlights the need for future research on how parents can be supported to promote the health of LGB youth. Recommendations for strengthening the research base are provided.

Bisexual Female Adolescents: A Critical Analysis of Past Research, and Results from a National Survey

Little is known about bisexual female adolescents from the existing empirical social science research literature. We review past studies, highlighting the barriers in the methods and methodologies that have limited our understanding of female adolescent bisexuality. Using data from the first and second waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we present findings that show (1) the prevalence of both-sex romantic attraction and relationships among young women, (2) the tendency for underrepresentation of females reporting both-sex attraction and relationships in the study, and (3) the fluidity of romantic attractions and relationships over the 18-month period between waves of the study. Implications for popular and scientific conceptions of female adolescent bisexuality are discussed, as are challenges for future research.

Parental Acceptance and Illegal Drug Use among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents: Results from a National Survey

Although gay, lesbian, and bisexual (GLB) adolescents face many of the same developmental challenges as do heterosexual adolescents, they must also deal with the stress of being part of a stigmatized group. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which family support and involvement with the queer community may buffer the effects of life stress on substance use among GLB youths. Drawing on a large national online survey, the authors examined drug use in 1906 GLB youths 12 to 17 years of age. Overall, 20 percent of the youths reported using illegal substances in the past 30 days. Results from multivariate analyses revealed that stress, as measured by suicidal ideation, significantly increased the risk of drug use. A positive reaction from the mother to the youth's coming out served as a significant protective factor, whereas involvement in a queer youth group had no effect. The authors found evidence that, for GLB adolescents, parental acceptance of sexual identity is an important aspect of a strong family relationship and, thus, has important ramifications for their healthy development. Implications of the findings for social work practice are discussed.

The Experiences of School Counselors-in-Training in Group Work With LGBTQ Adolescents

This article describes an ethnographic study that explored the effectiveness of integrating training in social justice group work within an existent school counseling course. This research supported that school counseling trainees expanded their knowledge, awareness, and skills related to both lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents and psycho-educational group work in schools. Limit setting was one skill that remained under-developed for trainees at the conclusion of this project. Implications for training and future research are discussed.

Sexual self-concept in sexually abused homeless adolescents

This study explored gender differences, sexual self-concept and life on the street among homeless adolescents who self-reported a history of sexual abuse. Individual interviews were conducted with 13 adolescents (six males and seven females) aged 18–20 years. There were salient themes shared by both males and females (vulnerability, sexual harassment, survival sex), and one theme specific to bisexual adolescents. Both males and females described aspects of their vulnerability related to being male or female. More than half the participants also described incidents of sexual harassment. In addition, both males and females stated that females needed the protection of males. Only one theme specific to youth with a bisexual orientation emerged related to the advantages of being bisexual. The findings indicate that sexual maturation takes place within the context of social and cognitive changes that can profoundly influence an individual's ability to develop a healthy sexual self-concept, including sexual awareness, sexual assertiveness, sexual self-efficacy, sexual esteem, sexual satisfaction and motivation to avoid risky sex. Further exploration related to sexual self-concept, the prevalence of sexual abuse and the impact of a sexual abuse history on the street life of homeless adolescents is warranted.

The Health and Health Care of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Adolescents

Adolescents face a variety of challenges in their transition to adulthood; lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents face these typical challenges as well as additional challenges that are related to the social stigma of their sexual orientation. For some lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents, this stigma may induce psychosocial stress, leading to increased health risk behaviors and poorer health outcomes. In this article, we review data on the health and health care of LGB adolescents. We examine health indicators and health risks for LGB youth, including substance use, eating disorders, suicidality, risky sexual behaviors, violence exposure and victimization, and homelessness. We also examine health care provision and utilization for LGB youth. Lastly, we discuss ways in which researchers and clinicians can improve LGB adolescent health and health care.

Connecting the invisible dots: Reaching lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents and young adults at risk for suicide through online social networks

Young lesbian, gay, and bisexual (young LGB) individuals report higher rates of suicide ideation and attempts from their late teens through early twenties. Their high rate of Internet use suggests that online social networks offer a novel opportunity to reach them. This study explores online social networks as a venue for prevention research targeting young LGB. An automated data collection program was used to map the social connections between LGB self-identified individuals between 16 and 24 years old participating in an online social network. We then completed a descriptive analysis of the structural characteristics known to affect diffusion within such networks. Finally, we conducted Monte Carlo simulations of peer-driven diffusion of a hypothetical preventive intervention within the observed network under varying starting conditions. We mapped a network of 100,014 young LGB. The mean age was 20.4 years. The mean nodal degree was 137.5, representing an exponential degree distribution ranging from 1 through 4309. Monte Carlo simulations revealed that a peer-driven preventive intervention ultimately reached final sample sizes of up to 18,409 individuals. The network's structure is consistent with other social networks in terms of the underlying degree distribution. Such networks are typically formed dynamically through a process of preferential attachment. This implies that some individuals could be more important to target to facilitate the diffusion of interventions. However, in terms of determining the success of an intervention targeting this population, our simulation results suggest that varying the number of peers that can be recruited is more important than increasing the number of randomly-selected starting individuals. This has implications for intervention design. Given the potential to access this previously isolated population, this novel approach represents a promising new frontier in suicide prevention and other research areas.

Protective Factors in the Lives of Bisexual Adolescents in North America

We compared protective factors among bisexual adolescents with those of heterosexual, mostly heterosexual, and gay or lesbian adolescents. We analyzed 6 school-based surveys in Minnesota and British Columbia. Sexual orientation was measured by gender of sexual partners, attraction, or self-labeling. Protective factors included family connectedness, school connectedness, and religious involvement. General linear models, conducted separately by gender and adjusted for age, tested differences between orientation groups. Bisexual adolescents reported significantly less family and school connectedness than did heterosexual and mostly heterosexual adolescents and higher or similar levels of religious involvement. In surveys that measured orientation by self-labeling or attraction, levels of protective factors were generally higher among bisexual than among gay and lesbian respondents. Adolescents with sexual partners of both genders reported levels of protective factors lower than or similar to those of adolescents with same-gender partners. Bisexual adolescents had lower levels of most protective factors than did heterosexual adolescents, which may help explain their higher prevalence of risky behavior. Social connectedness should be monitored by including questions about protective factors in youth health surveys.

Out Yonder: Sexual-Minority Adolescents in Rural Communities in British Columbia

We compared sexual-minority adolescents living in rural communities with their peers in urban areas in British Columbia, exploring differences in emotional health, victimization experiences, sexual behaviors, and substance use. We analyzed a population-based sample of self-identified lesbian, gay, or bisexual respondents from the British Columbia Adolescent Health Survey of 2003 (weighted n=6905). We tested rural-urban differences separately by gender with the chi2 test and logistic regressions. We found many similarities and several differences. Rural sexual-minority adolescent boys were more likely than were their urban peers to report suicidal behaviors and pregnancy involvement. Rural sexual-minority adolescents, especially girls, were more likely to report various types of substance use. Rural status was associated with a lower risk of dating violence and higher risk of early sexual debut for sexual-minority girls and a higher risk of dating violence and lower risk of early sexual debut for sexual-minority boys. Location should be a demographic consideration in monitoring the health of sexual-minority adolescents. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents in rural communities may need additional support and services as they navigate adolescence.

Coming to terms with coming out: Review and recommendations for family systems-focused research.

For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents and young adults, coming out to family members, especially parents, is a major psychological decision and hurdle due to both perceived fears and actual negative consequences. But beyond the literature on factors associated with the decision to come out and parents' initial reactions to the disclosure, empirical studies of what unfolds afterward, and how the family adjusts to the LGB adolescent's identity over time, are sparse and scattered. This article reviews and integrates findings from studies of the individual-, dyadic-, and family-level variables associated with positive outcomes, focusing particularly on relationship variables. Methodological concerns within this body of research are discussed, and research recommendations are offered. A preliminary working model of how families successfully come to terms with coming out is proposed to guide future research that will advance theory and clinical work with LGB youth and their families.

Narrative Therapy Pathways for Re-authoring with Parents of Adolescents Coming-out as Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual

Narrative therapy with parents as they are coming to terms with their adolescent sons’ and daughters’ coming-out as lesbian or gay provides a framework for reauthoring stories and revisioning identities as they negotiate the challenge of becoming lesbian/gay-membered families. Recognized for complementing the elements of multicultural practice, narrative therapy offers therapeutic interventions that are culturally sensitive and acknowledge the role of power and privilege in socially imaging what it means to be lesbian or gay. In this article the familiar storylines that these families bring into therapy are illustrated, and family work with parents of lesbian, gay, and bisexual adolescents is conceptualized using a narrative therapy lens.

3: Access to health care issues among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents: Examination of the Project Q Survey

3: Access to health care issues among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents: Examination of the Project Q Survey

Contested Conclusions: Claims That Can (and Cannot) Be Made from the Current Research on Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Teen Suicide Attempts

As the press and communities interpret research reports, their conclusions may go far beyond a study's evidence, especially if groups are trying to support politically-motivated claims about controversial causes and solutions to health problems. Few research designs can "prove" cause and effect, especially in population health research. However, some designs are better than others at identifying influences on health. Several strategies can help non-researchers evaluate studies critically. Using these statistics, this paper explores claims that can (and cannot) be made about causes of suicide attempts among gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents, based on current research evidence available.

Sex isn't that simple: Culture and context in HIV prevention interventions for gay and bisexual male adolescents.

Gay and bisexual male adolescents and young adults in the United States have been disproportionately impacted by the HIV pandemic. Despite the steadily increasing rise in their HIV infection rates, there has not been a commensurate increase in HIV prevention programs targeted to the unique social and sexual lives of these youths. Programs that address cultural and contextual factors that influence sexual risk and protective behaviors need to be developed, implemented, and rigorously evaluated. These interventions should address the potential influences of sexual and gay culture on the HIV risk/protective behaviors of gay and bisexual adolescents, as well as the influence of more traditional cultural factors related to ethnicity. The influence of contextual developmental factors should also be addressed. This may include an incorporation into prevention programs of the societal-level influences of heterosexism and masculinity ideology and the individual-level influences of sexual identity and ethnic identity development. Researchers and interventionists need to be creative and innovative in their HIV prevention approaches and ensure that programs are grounded in the lives and realities of gay and bisexual adolescents and young adults.

The Influence of Family Environment Factors on Self-Acceptance and Emotional Adjustment Among Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Adolescents

The quality of an adolescent's family environment has been shown to contribute to their self-acceptance and emotional adjustment. Studies suggest that sexual minority adolescents face unique challenges while negotiating family relationships but few studies have specifically examined the relationships between these family environments and the adolescent's psychological adjustment. This study examined general aspects of family functioning (family cohesion, family expressiveness, family conflict, parental support) and parental attitudes toward homosexuality as predictors of self-acceptance of sexual orientation identity and emotional adjustment among 102 gay, lesbian, and bisexual adolescents ages 15 to 19 years. Family variables did not predict a significant amount of variance in self-acceptance of sexual orientation identity. However, measures of general family functioning and parental attitudes toward homosexuality accounted for significant amounts of variance in emotional adjustment.