Disparities in Health and Academics of Sexual Minorities in Urban Middle Schools

描述（由申请人提供）：女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋和有问题（LGBQ）青少年的自杀是一个公共卫生问题（Haas等，2010）。最近的研究表明，学校和同龄人中对LGBQ的偏见会增加LGBQ青少年的健康风险（Russell, Kosciw, Horn, Saewyc, 2010）。本项目关注的是城市中不同种族的LGBQ中学生的经历，这是一个脆弱但尚未得到充分研究的群体，旨在确定影响这一群体健康和学业成就的风险和适应能力的因素。第一项研究使用BIAS MAP (Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007)，并借鉴了发展性友谊文献（Hallinan & Williams, 1989），系统地评估了群体间态度、同伴关系和学校氛围，并测试了它们对LGBQ和异性恋学生心理和学业成绩的影响。调查数据将从洛杉矶联合学区（LAUSD）几所大型城市学校7年级和8年级的800名亚裔、黑人、拉丁裔和白人男孩和女孩中收集。参与者将完成评估他们对不同种族LGBQ个体的刻板印象、偏见和行为倾向、他们的同种族、跨种族和跨性取向友谊、在学校的感知脆弱性、学校种族多样性以及学生的社会心理健康和学业成就的测试。积极的群体间态度和学校氛围，更好的跨种族/性取向友谊和更大的种族多样性将有助于提高各种族LGBQ和异性恋青少年的幸福感和学业成绩。第二项研究采用了一个成熟的实验范式来检验观察基于lgbt的伤害是否会影响异性恋青少年的幸福感。7年级和8年级的拉丁裔异性恋男孩（n= 120）和拉丁裔女孩（n= 120）将参加一个名为Cyberball的虚拟扔球电脑游戏（Williams，张，& Choi, 2000），在此过程中，他们目睹一个拉丁裔/女同性恋、男同性恋或双性恋学生被排除或包括在游戏中。每位参与者将完成对拉丁裔女同性恋、男同性恋和双性恋学生的心理健康（即状态自尊）、刻板印象、偏见和行为倾向的测量；友谊（例如，LGB朋友的数量），以及参与者将性少数群体拉丁美洲人视为群体内的程度。我们预期，目睹LGB青年被视为群体内成员的排斥会对异性恋观察者的幸福感产生负面影响。本文将采用聚类分析、层次线性模型和SEM多组分析相结合的方法对两项研究中的假设进行检验。从这个研究项目中获得的知识可以为适合我国城市学校实施的预防和干预项目提供信息。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning (LGBQ) adolescents is a public health concern (Haas, et al., 2010). Recent research demonstrates that anti-LGB prejudice at school and among peers contributes to health risks for LGBQ teens (Russell, Kosciw, Horn, Saewyc, 2010).This project focuses on the experiences of urban, ethnically diverse LGBQ middle school adolescents - a vulnerable yet understudied population - and seeks to identify factors that contribute to risk and resilience for well-being an academic achievement in this group. The first study uses the BIAS MAP (Cuddy, Fiske & Glick, 2007) and draws on the developmental friendship literature (Hallinan & Williams, 1989) to systematically assess intergroup attitudes, peer relations, and school climate and test their impact on psychological and academic outcomes for both LGBQ and heterosexual students. Survey data will be collected from 800 Asian, Black, Latino and White boys and girls enrolled in 7th and 8th grades at several large urban schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Participants will complete measures assessing their stereotypes, prejudices and behavioral tendencies toward various ethnic LGBQ individuals, their same - and cross-ethnic and cross-sexual orientation friendships, perceived vulnerability at school, and school ethnic diversity as well as students' psychosocial well-being and academic achievement. It is expected that positive intergroup attitudes and school climate, better cross ethnic/sexual orientation friendships and greater ethnic diversity will contribute to enhanced well- being and academic achievement of both LGBQ and heterosexual adolescents of various ethnic groups. The second study employs a well-established experimental paradigm to test whether observing LGB-based victimization impacts the well-being of heterosexual adolescents. Heterosexual Latino boys (n= 120) and Latina girls (n = 120) enrolled in 7th and 8th grades will take part in a virtual ball-tossing computer game called Cyberball (Williams, Cheung, & Choi, 2000) during which they witness a Latino/a lesbian, gay or bisexual student excluded or included in the game. Each participant will complete measures of psychological well-being (i.e., state self-esteem), stereotypes, prejudices and behavioral tendencies toward Latino lesbian, gay and bisexual students; friendships (e.g., number of LGB friends), and the degree to which the participant perceives sexual minority Latinos as in-group. It is expected that witnessing the exclusion of LGB youth perceived to be an in-group member will negatively affect the well-being of the heterosexual observer. A combination of cluster analysis, hierarchical linear modeling and SEM multiple group analysis will be used to test the hypotheses in both studies. Knowledge gained from this program of research can inform prevention and intervention programs suited for implementation in our nation's urban schools.