Mental Health Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgenr (LGBT) Youth

* gay social anxiety therapist *

People who are LGBTQ+ (lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, qutng, or queer) may be at creased risk for social anxiety disorr (SAD) bee of the social ntext which they velop. Mory strs refers to chronic high levels of strs experienced by groups agast whom there is stigma, discrimatn, prejudice, and this se homophobia or transphobia. Published fal eded form as:PMCID: PMC4887282NIHMSID: NIHMS789458AbstractToday’s lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) youth e out at younger ag, and public support for LGBT issu has dramatilly creased, so why do LGBT youth ntue to be at high risk for promised mental health?

Keywords: LGBT, sexual orientatn, genr inty, youthINTRODUCTIONIn the perd of only two s, there has been dramatic emergence of public and scientific awarens of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) liv and issu. This awarens n be traced to larger soccultural shifts unrstandgs of sexual and genr inti, cludg the emergence of the “gay rights” movement the 1970s and the advent of HIV/AIDS the 1980s. Yet the first public and rearch attentn to young LGBTs foced explicly on mental health: A small number of studi the 1980s began to intify ncerng rat of reported suicidal behavr among “gay” youth, and a US feral report on “gay youth suici” (Gibson 1989) beme ntroversial both polics and rearch (Rsell 2003).

Most of the knowledge base has foced on sexual inti (and historilly mostly on gay and lbian inti), wh much ls empiril study of mental health among transgenr or genr-nonnformg youth. Historil trends social acceptance the Uned Stat show, for example, that 43% of US adults agreed that “gay or lbian relatns between nsentg adults should be legal” 1977; by 2013 that number had grown to 66% (Gallup 2015). 2014) sum, chang societal acceptance of LGBT people have ma g out possible for ntemporary youth, yet the age of g out now tersects wh the velopmental perd characterized by potentially tense terpersonal and social regulatn of genr and sexualy, cludg homophobia.

THE COLLEGE GAY

We then highlight studi that foc on factors that protect and foster rilience among LGBT to the 1970s, the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn’s (APA’s) Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM) listed homosexualy as a “socpathic personaly disturbance” (Am. 1948, 1953) and psychologil parisons between heterosexual and gay men (Hooker 1957) fostered a change attus om the psychologil muny and motivated the APA’s removal of homosexualy as a mental disorr 1973 (although all ndns related to same-sex attractn were not removed until 1987).

Over the past 50 years, the psychologil disurse regardg same-sex sexualy shifted om an unrstandg that homosexualy was trsilly lked wh poor mental health toward unrstandg the social termants of LGBT mental health. Generally, Meyer (2003) poss three strs procs om distal to proximal: (a) objective or external strsors, which clu stctural or stutnalized discrimatn and direct terpersonal teractns of victimizatn or prejudice; (b) one’s expectatns that victimizatn or rejectn will occur and the vigilance related to the expectatns; and (c) the ternalizatn of negative social attus (often referred to as ternalized homophobia). Conceptual mol of ntextual fluenc on lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) youth mental health and associated implitns for polici, programs, and practice.

When parg the fdgs to mental health diagnosis rat the general populatn, the difference is stark: Almost 18% of lbian and gay youth participants met the creria for major prsn and 11. As a rult, lbian and gay youth livg unti wh fewer sexual orientatn and genr inty (SOGI)-specific antibullyg polici are twice as likely to report past-year suici attempts than youth livg areas where the polici were more monplace (Hatzenbuehler & Key 2013) wh school environments, is also important to nsir youths’ muny ntext. E., those wh more protectns for same-sex upl, greater number of registered Democrats, prence of gay-straight allianc (GSAs) schools, and SOGI-specific nondiscrimatn and antibullyg polici] are ls likely to attempt suici even after ntrollg for other risk ditors, such as a history of physil abe, prsive symptomatology, drkg behavrs, and peer victimizatn (Hatzenbuehler 2011).

NATALIE GAY, B.A. , PSYCHOLOGY

Importantly, although rat of bullyg crease over the urse of the adolcent years, this trend is ls pronounced for gay and bisexual pared to heterosexual mal, leavg the youth vulnerable to the experienc for longer perds of time (Robson et al.

LGB-AFFIRMATIVE COGNIVE-BEHAVRAL THERAPY FOR YOUNG ADULT GAY AND BISEXUAL MEN: A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL OF A TRANSDIAGNOSTIC MORY STRS APPROACH

Further, the vulnerabili to SOGI-biased-based bullyg are not unique to LGBT youth: Studi also dite that heterosexual youth report poor mental and behavral health as the rult of homophobic victimizatn (Poteat et al.

Natalie Gay, B.A. , Psychology - Anxiety Disorrs and universal Health Care

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