Expanding a culturally relevant model of sexual minority tobacco use: the impact of identity

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PROJECT SUMMARY The overall goal of this proposal is to provide the training, career development, and mentorship that will result in Dr. Hinds’ ability to integrate the bodies of research surrounding sexual minority (SM) identity development with tobacco use across the lifespan, expanding and improving upon culturally-relevant conceptual models that explain SM tobacco use. Dr. Hinds is a postdoctoral research fellow and Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Steve Hicks School of Social work at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Hinds’ research portfolio has focused on describing and explaining the tobacco use disparities of sexual and gender minority (SGM) young adults. Dr. Hinds’ long term career goal is to be a faculty member at a top-tier research university with a portfolio of independent, community-engaged collaborative research aimed at eliminating SGM tobacco and substance use disparities. Dr. Hinds completed a 2-year postdoctoral research fellowship funded through the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), focused on promoting health equity in cardiovascular disease (T32HL140290). Dr. Hinds completed graduate training in Tobacco Regulatory Science and received her PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education. In the current five-year proposal, Dr. Hinds outlines three training goals that are critical to expanding her skill set as an SM-focused tobacco researcher, to be addressed through coursework, seminars, directed readings, and mentored meetings: 1) content training in SM identity development and tobacco use across the lifespan, 2) methodological training in psychometrics and survey instrument development, and 3) data analysis training in order to test and refine a comprehensive model of SM tobacco use that includes elements of SM identity, measured multidimensionally. Dr. Hinds has assembled a strong mentoring team of highly successful, multidisciplinary experts who can each advise on multiple training goals and research aims, where Dr. Hinds will comprehensively examine the SM identity-related factors and dimensions that are linked to both increased and decreased risk for tobacco use and yield the following three primary outcomes: Aim 1) novel findings into the association between identity dimensions and milestones with tobacco use, based on mixed method secondary data analysis of two of the most prominent SM-focused studies ever conducted in the U.S.; Aim 2) a novel survey instrument assessing the phenomenon of SM identity management behaviors, and Aim 3) an updated and comprehensive conceptual model of SM tobacco use, that integrates the identity elements of dimensions, milestones, and identity management behaviors as explanatory mechanisms, alongside minority stress, in explaining unique determinants of SM tobacco use. Ultimately, findings from this project will improve our understanding of the etiology of SM tobacco use disparities, and inform an R01 proposal that will identify avenues for identity-affirming initiatives designed to reduce SM tobacco use.