Eighty-three Thousand Youth: Selected Findings of Eight Population-Based Studies

Meta-analysis of quantitative research that explores the particular needs of gay, lesbian, and bisexual high school students and sheds light on the issue of anti-gay harassment in schools. The studies include six statewide surveys, two administered in urban school districts and one conducted in the schools of 55 American Indian tribes. The report looks at the three studies which had been done at the time in which students were asked about experiencing sexual-orientation-based harassment, at the rates as well as the correlates of this type of bullying and violence. It also examines and compares the findings of four studies in which students were asked their sexual orientation and five that asked proximal questions and then used them (alone or in combination with identity) to infer respondents' "actual" sexual orientations. Proximal variables included gender(s) of people with whom the respondent has had sexual experiences, gender(s) of people to whom the respondent feels attraction and/or expects to have sexual experiences, and gender(s) about whom the respondent fantasizes

Factors associated with pregnancy and STI among Aboriginal students in British Columbia.

BACKGROUND: Aboriginal adolescents are more likely to become pregnant and contract an STI than other Canadian adolescents. This study provides some of the first data on factors associated with these outcomes among Aboriginal adolescents. METHODS: A secondary analysis was conducted using 2003 data from a large cross-sectional survey of British Columbia secondary school students. 445 young women and 360 young men who identified as Aboriginal and reported ever having sex were included in analyses. Associations between self-reported pregnancy and STI and 11 exposure variables were examined using logistic regression. RESULTS: Of young women, 10.6% reported a pregnancy; 10.5% of young men reported causing a pregnancy. An STI diagnosis was reported by 4.2% of young women and 3.9% of young men. In multivariate analyses for young men, ever having been sexually abused was the strongest consistent risk factor for causing a pregnancy (AOR = 4.30, 95% CI 1.64-11.25) and STI diagnosis (AOR = 5.58, 95% CI 1.61-19.37). For young women, abuse was associated with increased odds of pregnancy (AOR = 10.37, 95% CI 4.04-26.60) but not STI. Among young women, substance use was the strongest consistent risk factor for both pregnancy (AOR = 3.36, 95% CI 1.25-9.08) and STI (AOR = 5.27, 95% CI 1.50-18.42); for young men, substance use was associated with higher odds of STI (AOR = 4.60, 95% CI 1.11-19.14). Factors associated with decreased risk included community, school and family involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Health care professionals, communities and policy-makers must urgently address sexual abuse and substance use. Exploring promotion of school and community involvement and family cohesion may be useful for sexual health interventions with Aboriginal students

Access to Primary Health Care Services for Youth Experiencing Homelessness: “You shouldn’t need a health card to be healthy.”

On any given night, thousands of Canadian youth face homelessness in either absolute (living on the street) or relative (couch surfing, staying in emergency shelters) terms.  This study explores influences primary health care access among youth experiencing homelessness in a large Canadian urban centre.  Using a qualitative research design and convenience sampling, 8 youth participated in in-depth individual interviews and 4 clinicians with expertise in working with youth in primary care settings participated in a facilitated solutions-focused dialogue based on findings from the youth interviews.  Data collection occurred from January to November 2016.  Main findings included: (1) Youth experiencing homelessness feel powerless when interacting with health care providers, (2) Health care systems exist as rule-based bureaucracies and (3) Homeless youth are in survival mode when it comes to their health.  The authors offer recommendations to promote more equitable access to primary health care services for homeless youth

Enacted stigma, mental health, and protective factors among transgender youth in Canada

Purpose: We aimed to assess the Minority Stress Model which proposes that the stress of experiencing stigma leads to adverse mental health outcomes, but social supports (e.g., school and family connectedness) will reduce this negative effect. Methods: We measured stigma-related experiences, social supports, and mental health (self-injury, suicide, depression, and anxiety) among a sample of 923 Canadian transgender 14- to 25-year-old adolescents and young adults using a bilingual online survey. Logistic regression models were conducted to analyze the relationship between these risk and protective factors and dichotomous mental health outcomes among two separate age groups, 14- to 18-year-old and 19- to 25-year-old participants. Results: Experiences of discrimination, harassment, and violence (enacted stigma) were positively related to mental health problems and social support was negatively associated with mental health problems in all models among both age groups. Among 14–18 year olds, we examined school connectedness, family connectedness, and perception of friends caring separately, and family connectedness was always the strongest protective predictor in multivariate models. In all the mental health outcomes we examined, transgender youth reporting low levels of enacted stigma experiences and high levels of protective factors tended to report favorable mental health outcomes. Conversely, the majority of participants reporting high levels of enacted stigma and low levels of protective factors reported adverse mental health outcomes. Conclusion: While these findings are limited by nonprobability sampling procedures and potential additional unmeasured risk and protective factors, the results provide positive evidence for the Minority Stress Model in this population and affirm the need for policies and programs to support schools and families to support transgender youth

The National Inventory of School District Interventions in Support of LGBTQ Student Wellbeing

The National Inventory was undertaken in order to develop a detailed picture of the forms and extent of school system interventions made in support of the wellbeing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, Two Spirit, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) students in school districts across the country. The study was also designed to contribute to our knowledge of the particular outcomes that district officials associate with particular interventions so that we could select the intervention/outcome relationships that would be important to test in other phases of the larger project. These phases involve systematic assessment of intervention outcomes through analyzing available population health data for districts or regions where given implications have been widely implemented, and through on-site intervention evaluations and case studies."This study was funded by grant # MOP119472 by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Population and Public Health, and Institute of Gender and Health (Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, Principal Investigator).

Être en sécurité, être soi-même : résultats de l’enquête canadienne sur la santé des jeunes trans

Cette étude a été financée par la subvention no MOP119472 des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada, Institut de la santé des femmes et des hommes.Disponible en anglais dans EDUQ.info sous le titre "Being Safe, Being Me: Results of the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey

Inventaire national des interventions des commissions scholaires pout soutenir le bien-être des élèves LGBTQ: Rapport Final

L’Inventaire national a été entrepris afin d’élaborer un tableau détaillé des formes et de l’étendue des interventions de système scolaire dans le but de soutenir le bien-être des élèves homosexuels et lesbiens, bisexuels, transgenres, bispirituels, altersexuels et en questionnement (LGBTQ) dans les commissions scolaires dans tout le pays. L’étude visait aussi à mieux comprendre la façon dont les autorités des conseils scolaires associent certaines interventions à certains résultats, afin que nous puissions choisir les rapports intervention/résultat qu’il serait important de tester dans les autres phases du plus grand projet. Ces phases impliquent une évaluation systématique des résultats des interventions grâce aux analyses des données de santé de la population disponible pour les commissions ou régions où les mesures décrites ont été largement mises en oeuvre, et par des évaluations des interventions sur le terrain et par des études de cas.Cette étude a été financée par la bourse nº MOP119472 des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada : Institut de la santé des femmes et des hommes, et Institut de la santé publique et des populations (Elizabeth Saewyc, chercheuse principale)

Being Safe, Being Me: Results of the Canadian Trans Youth Health Survey

Cette étude a été financée par la subvention no MOP119472 des Instituts de recherche en santé du Canada, Institut de la santé des femmes et des hommes.Disponible en français dans EDUQ.info sous le titre "Être en sécurité, être soi-même : résultats de l’enquête canadienne sur la santé des jeunes trans".A national study by SARAVYC showed that while Canada’s transgender youth face significant physical and mental health issues, strong family, school and community connections help many of them navigate these challenges. The study, funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research and completed in collaboration with universities and health researchers across Canada, was the first and largest of its kind in Canada, with 923 individuals participating between the ages 14-25. They answered a range of questions in English or French on their home and school life, physical and mental health, access to health care, and gender identity. The report called for measures to improve the well-being of trans youth, including: improved support for families, so they can better understand and support their transgender children; developing safer, more inclusive schools; retooling health care to provide gender-affirming services for trans youth; and reducing health care disparities between provinces

Ten-year Trends in Physical Dating Victimization among Adolescent Boys and Girls in British Columbia, Canada

Physical dating violence (PDV) victimization among adolescents is a serious global problem. Although knowledge of trends in PDV victimization can help guide programming and health policies, little research has examined whether the prevalence of PDV victimization has increased, decreased, or remained stable over time among non-U.S.-based samples of youth. In addition, few studies have directly tested whether disparities in PDV victimization between boys and girls have narrowed, widened, or remained unchanged in recent years. To address these gaps, we used school-based data from the British Columbia Adolescent Health Surveys (BC AHS) of 2003, 2008, and 2013 (n boys = 18,441 and n girls = 17,459) to examine 10-year trends in PDV victimization. We also tested whether trends differed across self-reported sex. Data from the 2003 to 2013 BC AHS revealed that recent PDV victimization rates had significantly decreased among youth overall (5.9% to 5.0%) and boys (8.0% to 5.8%), but not girls (5.3% to 4.2%). Although boys had steeper declines than girls in PDV victimization rates, year-by-sex interactions indicate that the sex gap in PDV victimization had not significantly narrowed. Moreover, rates of PDV victimization over the 10-year period indicated significantly higher rates of PDV victimization among boys compared to girls. Despite positive declines in recent rates of PDV victimization among youth, important differences in rates of PDV victimization between boys and girls remain. These findings underscore the need for greater attention to sex differences in research and programming and health policies to reduce PDV victimization and the sex disparities therein