Future Directions in Understanding and Addressing Mental Health among LGBTQ Youth

Abstract

Today’s LGBTQ youth come of age at a time of dynamic social and political change with regard to LGBTQ rights and visibility, yet remain vulnerable to compromised mental health. Despite advances in individual-level treatment strategies, school-based programs, and state-level policies that address LGBTQ mental health, there remains a critical gap in large-scale evidence-based prevention and intervention programs designed to support the positive development and mental health of LGBTQ youth. To spur advances in research and translation, I pose six considerations for future scholarship and practice. I begin by framing LGBTQ (mental) health disparities in a life course perspective and discuss how research focused on the timing of events could offer insight into the optimum targets and timing of prevention and intervention strategies. Next, I argue the importance of expanding notions of “mental health” to include perspectives of wellbeing, positive youth development, and resilience. I then consider how research might attend to the complexity of LGBTQ youths’ lived experience within and across the various contexts they traverse in their day-to-day lives. Similarly, I discuss the importance of exploring heterogeneity in LGBTQ youth experiences and mental health. I also offer suggestions for how community partnerships may be a key resource for developing and evaluating evidence-informed programs and tools designed to foster the positive development and mental health of LGBTQ youth. Finally, I acknowledge the potentials of team science for advancing research and practice for LGBTQ youth health and wellbeing. Throughout, these future directions center the urgent needs of LGBTQ youth.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

¹ A quick note on language; I use “LGBTQ” and “sexual and gender minority” interchangeably, intentionally, and in variation (e.g., “sexual minority” or “LGB” and “gender minority”) to reflect differences across study samples and measurement.

² I intentionally use identity-first language given our focus on intersectional perspectives with regards to disability status and LGBTQ status (Dunn & Andrews, 2015)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement #U48DP006382 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Child Health and Human Development grant P2CHD041041, Maryland Population Research Center. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or CDC