Gender Sexuality Alliances and School Safety: Who Benefits Most, and Do Additive School-Led Practices Strengthen the Link?

While Gender and Sexuality Alliances (GSAs) are associated with higher acceptance of sexual diversity and lower bullying-victimization, it is unclear which individual and school-level attributes strengthen these associations. Nationally representative data (N = 1,567 students; Mage = 15.4, SD = 0.16; 34% boys, 66% girls, 51% heterosexual, 49% sexually-diverse after propensity score matching) in 139 Dutch secondary schools were used. Multilevel regression analyses revealed that GSA presence was linked to more inclusive attitudes about sexual diversity and a safer disclosure climate among sexually-diverse students, and lower general bullying-victimization when the school had a GSA combined with school practices to tackle bullying. School professionals and researchers are recommended to recognize the significance of individual and school-level factors that affect GSA correlates.

Trends in Bullying Victimization and Social Unsafety for Sexually and Gender Diverse Students.

Research has documented trends in bullying victimization for sexually diverse adolescents in the US, but trends regarding school social unsafety are understudied and there is a dearth of research examining these trends for gender diverse adolescents. This study aimed to identify disparities in bullying victimization and feelings of social unsafety in schools for sexually and gender diverse adolescents. Data stem from the 2014 (N = 15,800; M age = 14.17, SD = 1.50), 2016 (N = 22,310; M age = 14.17, SD = 1.49), and 2018 (N = 10,493; M age = 14.02, SD = 1.52) survey cycles of the Social Safety Monitor, a Dutch cross-sectional school-based study. Findings indicate that sexual orientation disparities remained relatively small, but stable over time, while gender diverse adolescents remained more likely to be victimized and feel unsafe in school, with larger disparities overall. Monitoring these trends is highly relevant, especially considering recent negative developments regarding societal acceptance of sexual and gender diversity.

Trauma-informed prevention programmes for depression, anxiety, and substance use among young people: protocol for a mixed-methods systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Mental ill-health and substance use bear a substantial burden and harm on young people and often arise from co-occurring and compounding risk factors, such as traumatic stress. Trauma-informed prevention of mental ill-health and substance use demonstrates significant promise in reducing this burden. A systematic literature review is required to identify and summarise the effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability, and design principles underpinning existing trauma-informed mental ill-health and/or substance use prevention programmes for young people aged 12-24 years. METHODS: MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and Cochrane Library will be searched from 2012 through September 2022. Reference lists of included articles will be citation-chained. Title and abstracts will be screened and two reviewers will review articles full-text. One reviewer will extract data from eligible articles using a piloted data extraction form, and 20% of the data will be verified by a second reviewer. Risk of bias will be assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomised trials (RoB 2), Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Interventions (ROBINS-I), and The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Quasi-Experimental Studies and The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Qualitative Research (CASP), depending on the study type. Characteristics of existing trauma-informed mental ill-health and/or substance use prevention programmes for young people will be summarised narratively. Effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability will be qualitatively described and summarised, with proportions and effect sizes quantitatively synthesised, where possible. DISCUSSION: Trauma-informed approaches to prevention demonstrate significant promise, yet to date, no study has systematically summarised and synthesised the available literature. To fill this gap, the present review will systematically identify and summarise the effectiveness, feasibility, acceptability, and design principles underpinning existing trauma-informed mental health and/or substance use prevention programmes for young people aged 12-24. This review will inform the development, adaptation, evaluation, and implementation of future trauma-informed mental ill-health and substance use prevention programmes for young people. Findings will inform critical efforts to interrupt and prevent already elevated trajectories of mental ill-health, substance use, and related harms among those young people exposed to adversity. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42022353883.

Differences by sex and gender in the association between minority stress and alcohol use among sexual and gender minority youth: A daily diary study.

RATIONALE: Sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth consume more alcohol than their heterosexual, cisgender peers. The experience of minority stress is theorized to explain these disparities. Research often neglects the day-to-day variability in minority stress that SGM youth encounter and whether alcohol use is associated with daily experiences of minority stress. Further, there is heterogeneity in alcohol use among SGM youth. Sex assigned at birth and gender identity could potentially explain this heterogeneity. OBJECTIVE: Therefore, this study aimed to examine whether daily experiences of minority stress were associated with daily alcohol use among SGM youth and how these associations differed by sex assigned at birth and gender identity. METHODS: A 14-day daily diary study was conducted among 393 Dutch SGM youth (M age = 18.36 SD = 2.65). RESULTS: Results showed few significant associations between both mean levels of minority stress and daily experiences with minority stress with alcohol use. However, higher mean levels of prejudice events were associated with higher odds of daily alcohol use (OR = 7.01, 95% CI: 1.20-40.89). Daily experiences with identity concealment were associated with lower odds of daily alcohol use for males (OR = 0.72, 95% CI: 0.60-0.86), but not for females (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 0.93-1.32). Further, for cisgender youth, daily experiences with prejudice events were associated with higher odds of alcohol use (OR = 1.99, 95% CI: 1.05-3.78), but this was not the case for gender minority youth (OR = 0.42, 95% CI: 0.15-1.18). CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed few significant associations between minority stressors and alcohol use, but daily experiences of concealment and prejudice events were associated with daily alcohol use and these associations varied by sex assigned at birth and gender identity, respectively.

Associations of Relationship Experiences, Dating Violence, Sexual Harassment, and Assault With Alcohol Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents report higher rates of dating violence victimization compared with their heterosexual and cisgender peers. Research on dating violence often neglects diversity in sexual and gender identities and is limited to experiences in relationships. Further, given that dating violence and alcohol use are comorbid, research on experiences of dating violence could provide insights into alcohol use disparities among SGM adolescents. We aimed to map patterns of relationship experiences, sexual and physical dating violence, and sexual and physical assault and explored differences in these experiences among SGM adolescents. Further, we examined how these patterns explained alcohol use. We used a U.S. non-probability national web-based survey administered to 13-17-year-old SGM adolescents (N = 12,534). Using latent class analyses, four patterns were identified: low relationship experience, dating violence and harassment and assault (72.0%), intermediate dating experiences, sexual harassment, and assault and low levels of dating violence (13.1%), high dating experiences, dating violence, and sexual assault (8.6%), and high dating experiences, dating violence, and sexual harassment and assault (6.3%). Compared to lesbian and gay adolescents, bisexual adolescents reported more experiences with dating, dating violence, and sexual assault, whereas heterosexual adolescents reported fewer experiences with dating, dating violence, and sexual harassment and assault. Compared to cisgender boys, cisgender girls, transgender boys, and non-binary/assigned male at birth adolescents were more likely to experience dating violence inside and outside of relationship contexts. Experiences of dating, dating violence, and sexual harassment and assault were associated with both drinking frequency and heavy episodic drinking. Together, the findings emphasize the relevance of relationship experiences when studying dating violence and how dating violence and sexual harassment and assault might explain disparities in alcohol use.