Allyson Marie Blackburn

While the population and acceptance of LGBTQ people are growing, there are persistent mental health disparities for LGBTQ individuals, especially for emerging adults. Social support is critical for the promotion of well-being. Yet, who receives support and the nature of the support provided can vary based on social identity, including sexual orientation and gender identity. In this study, we demonstrate the benefit of using ego-centric social network analysis (ESNA) to advance research about emotional support for sexual minorities. Using a sample of 1,215 undergraduate students (253 sexual minorities) from a large Midwestern university, we show that sexual minorities reported a greater proportion of LGBTQ people yet a lower proportion of family in their social network. We also show that sexual minorities reported that they were less likely to receive support but were more likely to be nominated by both heterosexuals and sexual minorities as network members who provide support. Finally, sexual minority participants relied more on friends than parents for emotional support, whereas the opposite was true for heterosexual students. These (and other) findings show how ESNA allows for testing hypotheses that capture the interconnected context of relationships. We discuss how findings advance the literature along with limitations and implications. Overall, we show that ESNA is a valuable tool to use to understand social networks as a critical context for development and well-being.

In the United States, mental health disparities persist between sexual minorities – people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or other nonheterosexual identifications – and heterosexuals. Although research shows that structural stigma in one's environment may contribute to such disparities, little research has examined religious environment as a source of structural stigma for sexual minorities. Given historic and ongoing religious‐based sexual minority stigma, such research is needed. Thus, we conducted a secondary analysis of the Household Pulse Survey ( n = 824,900) to test whether facets of the religious environment (i.e., presence of places of worship and conservative Christian adherents in one's U.S. state of residence) are associated with anxiety and depression. We test if associations are stronger for sexual minorities compared to heterosexuals and if associations remain significant after including other facets of the social environment (same‐sex households, political conservatism, and urbanicity) and individual‐level controls. We found that when considered separately, religious and social environmental factors demonstrated stronger associations with anxiety and depression for sexual minorities relative to heterosexuals, even after controlling for individual variables. Findings were more nuanced for integrated models. Overall, we address a gap in the literature by examining religion as a structural part of one's environment.

Background: Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual orientation and gender diverse (SOGD) communities are at disproportionately higher risk for sexual violence compared to cisgender heterosexual people. Despite this elevated risk, relatively few sexual violence prevention efforts effectively reduce these victimization disparities based on sexual orientation or gender identity.Objective: This narrative review provides an overview of the prevalence of sexual violence in the SOGD communities, delineates risk factors for sexual victimization among SOGD community members, and reviews and evaluates existing prevention efforts for the SOGD communities. We outline specific recommendations for ensuring that prevention efforts meet the needs of the SOGD communities.Method: Drawing on ecological systems theory and public health approaches to sexual violence prevention, we outline current approaches and opportunities for preventionists and scholars to push the field forward.Results: There have been promising prevention programmes designed to be implemented within SOGD communities specifically; however, it is important that general primary prevention programmes endeavour to specifically address sexual violence perpetrated against SOGD people. While many packaged programmes that endeavour to prevent sexual violence across all gender identities and sexual orientations are inclusive of SOGD participants, more programming is needed that integrates anti-oppression training to target social norms that perpetuate SOGD-specific rape myths and normalize sexual violence against SOGD community members.Conclusion: Ecological prevention strategies in line with a public health approach for primary prevention may be particularly valuable for reducing victimization disparities based on SOGD status and identity. Comprehensive sexual education and anti-discrimination policies should be considered front-line prevention programming. To assess if these strategies are effective, the implementation of large-scale surveillance surveys that use comprehensive assessments of sexual orientation, gender identity, and sexual violence are needed. Using theoretically grounded implementation strategies for prevention programmes can ensure effective programme delivery.

The American Journal of Community Psychology (AJCP) was founded in 1973 and has since its inception has been the flagship journal for the Society of Community Research and Action. AJCP publishes leading scholarship in community psychology and social action research. This special issue celebrates the 50 years of scholarship in AJCP by curating and assembling previously published articles in virtual special issues (VSIs) with accompanying commentaries. Nine VSIs were compiled as part of this special issue. Each of these VSIs were organized around themes that are of critical importance to community psychology and each VSI summarizes what has been learned from their included articles and future directions for the field. In this paper, we introduce this special issue on this collection of VSIs, discussing how each of these VSIs endeavor to push the field forward.

This study investigates science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) PhD students' perceptions of organizational values and incivility. Interviews with 26 STEM PhD students elicited examples of and perceptions surrounding incivility and related harms. Productivity, prestige, expertise, objectivity, self‐sufficiency, and collaboration values were identified. Each included aspects deemed useful (e.g., productivity fueling discovery; expertise facilitating learning) as well as potentially contributing to harm when weaponized (e.g., productivity appeared in incivility stories when one “looked down” on those who did not work long days; expertise appeared when people gossiped about intelligence). Some aspects of collaboration (e.g., long‐lasting working relationships fueling scientific discovery) may be protective. Organizational values such as productivity appeared to supersede considerations such as well‐being. Current framing of these values may bolster refusal to engage in or support social justice and mental health efforts, which some participants identified as needed. Implications across settings are discussed.