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Abstract
This article compares heterosexual and sexual minority street-involved youth across a number of sociodemographic, risk and current mental health, victimization and delinquency measures with a particular focus on gender differences. The sample consists of 147 homeless and street-involved young men and women aged 16–21 years in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Bivariate analyses indicate that many of the differences between the heterosexual and sexual minority youth are driven by differences among the young women. Multivariate analyses are then used to test for interactions between gender and sexual minority status alongside controls. The results suggest that gender, sexuality and street involvement intersect to shape outcomes in more complex ways than are acknowledged by the notion of accumulating or multiplying disadvantage common in the literature. The article concludes with a discussion focused on providing a more nuanced view of the experience of youth homelessness at the intersection of gender and sexuality.
Acknowledgements
The Youth Pathways Project provided the data for this study. The authors would like to acknowledge co-investigators/collaborators: Edward Adlaf, Jennifer Butters, Deborah Goodman, Andrew Hathaway, Bruce Leslie, Paul Links, Carol Strike, Christine Wekerle; community partners: Toronto Children's Aid Society, Catholic Children's Aid Society, SHOUT Clinic; and research staff: Katharine King (Project Coordinator), Maritt Kirst, Eman Leung. This article was also benefited greatly from the assistance of Robert Anderson, Blair Wheaton and Paul Glavin. This work was supported by several grants: (1) Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Strategic Grant, “Homelessness and Diversity Issues in Canada” (#855-2003-0005); (2) SSHRC special competition, “Innovative Approaches to Dissemination”, for those awarded grants in the Homelessness and Diversity competition (#855-2006-0007); (3) the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) Pilot Project grant “New Perspectives on Gender and Health” of the Institute of Gender and Health (#GHG73326); (4) Lori Ross is supported by a New Investigator Award from CIHR and the Ontario Women's Health Council (#NOW-84656); and (5) Tara Fidler (Bruno) was supported by a New Emerging Team Grant from CIHR (#VGH-63212). In addition, support to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for salary of scientists and infrastructure has been provided by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.