Belonging to a school Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) is associated with lower substance use among LGBTQ+ youth. However, it is unknown whether GSA participation facilitates access to resources for substance use concerns. Using longitudinal data from 38 Massachusetts high schools, we compared sources of support for substance use concerns…

Research among sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth has suggested associations between Gender-Sexuality Alliance (GSA) involvement and better health. Emergent research has similarly demonstrated associations between family support and general well-being among SGM youth. However, the trait of bravery has received little attention in this…

Attention to youth advocacy and sociopolitical efficacy has been evident in developmental research on critical consciousness, yet this literature has given little attention to sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth or issues, or to the interplay between these dimensions of critical consciousness over time. We addressed these limitations within the…

Many students participate in a wide range of school or community-based extracurricular programs. Although there is strong evidence such programs promote healthy development programs that specifically serve sexual and gender minority students (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning [LGBTQ] students), and that address…

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) aspire to empower youth to address multiple systems of oppression, including those affecting transgender and racial/ethnic minority youth, yet there is little indication of factors contributing to youths' self-efficacy to do so. We examined individual and group factors predicting self-efficacy to address transgender…

Empowering students to report peer victimization is a major part of bullying intervention. Nevertheless, although bullying often can be discriminatory (e.g., homophobic), there remains limited attention to how issues of diversity relate to students reporting their victimization experiences. Among 572 students in four Chilean high schools, we…

Using data from the 2015 "Dane County Youth Assessment" (n = 12,886 students, 22 high schools), we identified disparities between students with Individualized Education Programs (IEP) and without IEPs across multiple post-high school aspirations. We identified significant IEP status × grades earned interactions in predicting students'…

Outside the immediate classroom setting, efforts within other school spaces also can shape school climate, address inequality, and affect student performance. Nevertheless, in this respect there has been little research on school-based extracurricular groups focused on issues of social inclusion and justice. An exception to this lack of focus has…

Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) and heterosexual youth from diverse backgrounds. Although some attention has been given to youth members in general, little attention has been given to adult advisors. Among 47 GSA advisors from 33 high schools (39 cisgender female, 8 cisgender male), the authors…

Victimization based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender expression (SOGE) carries significant consequences. In this study, we examined how SOGE-based victimization and contextual factors predicted truancy among 886 Chilean students (M[subscript age] = 16.00, SD = 1.30) in four high schools. Victimization predicted truancy…

Using youth program models to frame the study of Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), we identified individual and structural predictors of greater engagement in these settings with a cross-sectional sample of 295 youth in 33 GSAs from the 2014 Massachusetts GSA Network Survey (69% LGBQ, 68% cisgender female, 68% White, M[subscript age] =16.07).…

Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) may promote resilience. Yet, what GSA components predict well-being? Among 146 youth and advisors in 13 GSAs (58% lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning; 64% White; 38% received free/reduced-cost lunch), student (demographics, victimization, attendance frequency, leadership, support, control), advisor (years served,…

There is little data on whether school discipline or juvenile justice sanctions are directed disproportionately toward sexual minority youth (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning; LGBQ) compared with heterosexual youth and even less on factors that may relate to such disparities. We tested for sexual orientation-based disparities in school…

Drawing from an ecological framework, there has been growing attention on the role of peers in accounting for adolescents' homophobic behavior. In this study, we considered whether individuals' homophobic behavior could be attributed to their peers' collective levels of aggression, sexual prejudice, and importance placed on their sexual…

A total of 11,447 high school students were surveyed to test the relation between victimization and the educational outcomes of truancy, post-high school intentions, and grades for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) and non-LGBTQ students. LGBTQ students reported statistically higher truancy, lower grades, greater…