Our long term mission is to improve support for stigmatized youth. To accomplish this, we conduct research in 3 domains.
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(1) Identify the unique experiences of youth with 1+ stigmatized identities
Examples: discrimination, bullying, supportive caregiver experiences
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(2) Determine how stigmatized youth's unique experiences affect their mental health + wellbeing
Examples: internalized transphobia, social isolation
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(3) Identify methods of improving care for stigmatized youth
Examples: effective gender-affirming care training methods, caregiver engagement skills
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Current Studies
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How Can Therapists Better Support Transgender Youth?
Gender-Affirming Psychotherapy Study (GAPS) Transgender youth often struggle to find therapists who understand their specific needs and provide adequate support. With grant support from the National Institute of Mental Health, the American Psychological Foundation, and Boston College, we will create a virtual training to teach therapists how to best serve transgender youth based on input from transgender youth, their caregivers, and mental health provider experts. In other words, our training will help close some of the “GAPS” in therapists’ training so that they can better support transgender youth! Read more about this project here. You can also find more detailed information regarding this study on our OSF pre-registration page. |
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How Can High School Staff Better Support Transgender Students?
Improving Methods of Providing Affirming Care to Transgender Students (IMPACTS) Transgender students face discrimination and other difficulties at school, and school staff often lack the necessary resources and knowledge to adequately support transgender students. With funding from Boston College School of Social Work Center for Social Innovation and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society, we will create an online high school staff training program based on ideas from transgender students, their parents, and school staff experts. We are hopeful that this study positively “IMPACTS” the lives of transgender students! |
Completed Studies
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Is Structural Transphobia Associated with Psychological Distress and Suicidality?
Using data from the United States Transgender Survey and the Movement Advancement Project, we examined whether structural transphobia (i.e., norms, laws & policies that inhibit the rights and wellbeing of transgender and non-binary people) is associated with psychological distress and suicidality in a national sample of transgender adults in the US. Our results indicate that transgender adults living in states with more transphobic laws/policies and attitudes report greater psychological distress and are more likely to endorse suicidality (read our preprint here). |
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Is Psychotherapy Less Effective for Stigmatized Youth (Girls & Black youth) in Places with High Structural Stigma?
Using a meta-analytic database of over 50 years of youth psychotherapy RCTs from Dr. John Weisz's Youth Mental Health Lab, we teamed with Dr. Mark Hatzenbuehler's BEST lab to examine the impact of structural stigma (specifically, community-level cultural attitudes about gender, and separately, about race) on psychotherapy effectiveness for girls and Black youth. We found that treatment efficacy for these groups was significantly lower in communities with high levels of structural stigma. (Check out our publication about racism here and our publication about sexism here.) |
What Kinds of Supportive and Adverse Experiences are Transgender & Gender Diverse Youth Experiencing?
With support from the The Pershing Square Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior, we collaborated with the Yale Gender Center to analyze clinical interview and survey data from trans/non-binary youths and their caregivers to identify: (a) their experiences of adversity within and outside of therapy, (b) their supportive and unsupportive experiences with caregivers, and (c) the impact of those experiences on depression and anxiety. Click here to read our publication about their therapy experiences and click here to read our publication about youth's experiences of gender-related adversity.
With support from the The Pershing Square Fund for Research on the Foundations of Human Behavior, we collaborated with the Yale Gender Center to analyze clinical interview and survey data from trans/non-binary youths and their caregivers to identify: (a) their experiences of adversity within and outside of therapy, (b) their supportive and unsupportive experiences with caregivers, and (c) the impact of those experiences on depression and anxiety. Click here to read our publication about their therapy experiences and click here to read our publication about youth's experiences of gender-related adversity.
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How Effective are Existing Therapies for Transgender Youth?
Using data from four prior randomized controlled trials of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) for youth, we compared the effectiveness and acceptability of these therapies across cisgender and transgender youth. Compared to cisgender youth, transgender youth reported more severe mental health problems before treatment, demonstrated slower improvement in some of these problems, and were less satisfied with treatment, underscoring the need for gender-affirming enhancements to existing therapies. Click here to read our published paper and click here to see a poster and video presentation of these findings. |
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