Be YOU!: A collaborative effort to address minority stress for LGBTQ + youth in school settings

Abstract

LGBTQ youth often experience unsafe school climates and are at greater risk for compromised mental health relative to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. The psychological mediation model posits that these health inequities are produced by minority stress, which operates through several key mechanisms: rumination, emotion regulation, and coping. Efforts toward designing social services that might address these mechanisms, and thus improve LGBTQ youth well-being, are limited. Informed by empirical research and therapeutic practices, Be YOU! was conceived as a school-based empowerment program that provides LGBTQ youth with an accessible, safe space where they build skills to reduce rumination and promote emotion regulation and coping strategies for dealing with minority stressors. Developed collaboratively among a local LGBTQ youth center, a local school-based community organization, and university researchers, the Be YOU! partnership effectively circumvented barriers to accessing social services for LGBTQ youth. Findings from the pilot program evaluation showed that youth participation was associated with increased emotion regulation and decreased rumination. The practical impact on and positive feedback from LGBTQ youth suggest that there are measurable benefits and long-term promise in strategic multi-sector partnerships that address social services needs of LGBTQ youth and strengthen their ability to navigate minority stress.

Keywords:

• Community-based organization
• LGBTQ youth
• mental health
• school-based programs

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Ruoyun (Chrys) Xu who contributed to this project. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

J.N.F. acknowledges support from the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement U48DP006382 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and P2CHD041041, awarded to the Maryland Population Research Center by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. S.T.R. acknowledges support from the Priscilla Pond Flawn Endowment at the University of Texas at Austin and from grant P2CHD042849, Population Research Center, awarded to the Population Research Center at The University of Texas at Austin by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.