Abstract
Although scholarship continues to document higher rates of alcohol use for sexual and gender minority (SGM) youth compared with heterosexual and cisgender youth, research identifying factors that mitigate SGM youths’ risk is nascent. Youth spend substantial time in schools; therefore, teachers could play significant roles in attenuating these health concerns. We used data from a nationwide survey of 11,189 SGM youth (Mage = 15.52; 67.7% White) to explore whether perceived teacher social-emotional support attenuated the association between victimization and alcohol use, further conditioned by youths’ specific ethnoracial identity. As expected, victimization was associated with more frequent alcohol use; however, greater perceived teacher support attenuated this association. The attenuating effect of perceived teacher support was significantly stronger for Hispanic/Latinx youth than White youth. Our findings have implications for alcohol use prevention among SGM youth, who face significant marginalization in schools and society. If we are to prevent alcohol use disparities among SGM youth, scholars and stakeholders (e.g., school administrators, teachers) should invest in building teacher efficacy to intervene in SGM-specific victimization.
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Acknowledgements
This research uses data from the LGBTQ National Teen Study, designed by Ryan J. Watson and Rebecca M. Puhl in collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign, and supported by the Office for Vice President of Research at the University of Connecticut. The authors acknowledge the important contributions of Ellen Kahn, Gabe Murchison, and Liam Miranda in their support, conceptualization, and management related to the LGBTQ National Teen Study. We acknowledge Bianca Gomez for her assistance in the development of this manuscript.
Funding
This study was funded by University of Maryland Prevention Research Center cooperative agreement/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant (U48DP006382), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Center for Child Health and Human Development grant (P2CHD041041), Maryland Population Research Center, and National Institutes of Drug Abuse grants (K01DA047918; R03DA046827).
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Watson, R.J., Fish, J.N., Poteat, V.P. et al. Teacher Support, Victimization, and Alcohol Use Among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth: Considering Ethnoracial Identity. Prev Sci 22, 590–601 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01216-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-021-01216-9