Doctoral Dissertation Research: Stigma, Social Structure, and Adolescent Mental Health

本研究通过评估影响男女同性恋和双性恋青少年心理健康问题的社会因素，探讨性取向与青少年心理健康之间的关系。该项目考察了这样一个前提，即LGB青少年的经历会导致对社会支持和社会网络的污名化，从而产生精神健康问题的高风险。本论文有两个研究目标。第一个目标是使用一个具有全国代表性的数据集来概括LGB的社会支持经历，并评估这些经历如何影响他们的心理健康。对于第二个目标，该项目使用社会网络数据来描述和比较LGB和异性恋青少年的社会网络经历，因为它们对心理健康结果有贡献。本文使用了来自全国青少年健康纵向研究（Add Health）的两个样本。第一个样本是具有全国代表性的18924名7至12年级的美国青少年样本，他们于1995年首次接受采访，并于1996年和2001-2002年进行了两次后续采访。第二个样本是一个有7106名学生的社交网络样本。本样本包含了16所学校参加第一轮访谈的所有在册学生的数据。一个具有全国代表性的样本可以更准确地描述LGB青少年的社会支持经历。学校同伴网络的社会网络样本可以更好地理解社会群体的结构安排如何对心理健康产生影响。这项研究的更广泛影响在于其研究结果的效用，以更好地为个人和社区层面的临床和政策战略提供信息，以减少LGB青少年的心理健康问题。

The dissertation research examines the relationship between sexual orientation and adolescent mental health by assessing the social determinants of mental health problems among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth. The project examines the premise that the experience of being a LGB adolescent leads to stigmatizing social support and social network experiences which in turn produce a high risk of mental health problems. The dissertation has two research goals. The first goal is to use a nationally-representative dataset to generalize about the social support experiences of LGB and evaluate how these experiences affect their mental health. For the second goal, the project uses social network data to describe and compare the social network experiences of LGB and heterosexual adolescents as they contribute to mental health outcomes. The dissertation uses two samples from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The first sample is a nationally-representative sample of 18,924 U.S. adolescents from grades 7 to 12 who were initially interviewed in 1995 with two follow-up interviews in 1996 and 2001-2002. The second sample is a social network sample of 7,106 students. This sample contains data from all enrolled students in 16 schools who participated in the Wave I interview. A nationally-representative sample gives a more accurate description of the social support experiences of LGB adolescents. A social network sample of peer networks in school provides greater understanding on how structural arrangements in social groups have consequences for mental health. The broader impacts of this research lie in the utility of its findings to better inform clinical and policy strategies at the individual and community levels in reducing mental health problems among LGB adolescents.