Emotional abuse is one of the most commonly experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), with a 2015 study discovering that more than 3 out of every 4 young children have experienced emotional abuse while growing up (Kerber et al., 2015). This emotional abuse can take a toll on the child, as it increases the likelihood that the child will develop depression, anxiety, and stress compared to a child who wasn't abused (Dye, 2019). It is also important to recognize that these negative impacts are not just limited to childhood, as those who are emotionally abused as a child have statistically significant higher rates of STI infections, heart disease, obesity, and migraines (Norman et al., 2012).
One thing that is important to recognize is that the prevalence of emotional abuse is not the same for all populations. For example, the prevalence of emotional abuse is higher in households with lower incomes as well as among racial minorities (Giano et al., 2020). That being said, one population which suffers disproportionately from emotional abuse is queer youth. Unfortunately, queer youth are 2.3 times more likely to have been emotionally abused compared to heterosexual youth (Tran et al., 2022). This unequal treatment has real consequences, as queer youth are much more likely to attempt youth than cisgender, straight youth (Roberts, 2020). Specifically, 29% of trans youth, 21% of gay/lesbian youth, and 22% of bisexual youth have attempted suicide, compared to only 7% of cisgender, straight youth (Roberts, 2020).
With all of this in mind, we wanted to create an intervention that would be focused on limiting the impact of emotional abuse among queer youth in the state of Florida. The reason for specifically focusing on the state of Florida is because of the creation of new legislation within the state that bans classroom instruction on sexual instruction at all grade levels and puts limits on bathroom use according to one’s gender identity (Izaguirre and Farrington, 2023). This direct target on queer youth not only can lead to emotional trauma but it can also limit their ability to form communities with one another at their schools. Given the importance of forming close relationships in building resilience (Ozbay et al., 2007), we hoped to work with queer youth in order to foster more relationships that they could rely on.
As such, Project FL LGBTQ+ Youth was created. The theme of this intervention is "Finding Community Support for Queer Youth in Florida" because of the barriers in place currently to finding community for this population. To market this intervention, two different products were created. The first product is an infographic directed specifically for queer youth. The infographic gives some details on the importance of resilience, how the intervention will help foster community among queer youth, as well as information about how to get involved. The second product is a TV commercial that is actually geared toward the parents of queer youth who may not be entirely accepting of their child's sexual orientation or gender identity. The commercial discusses how the intervention will try to aid parents in understanding what their queer youth is feeling and why it's important for them to have close support. When creating this commercial, we ensured that the parents never felt they were being attacked, but rather that their position was understood.
When creating the actual intervention, the CDC social ecological model was used as the basis for building out the intervention components (CDC, 2022). At the individual level, efforts will be directed toward the queer youth with the goal of improving their knowledge of potential resources where they can receive help. This will involve connecting queer youth with fellow peers as well as organizations that are focused on connecting queer youth to one another. The ultimate goal at the individual level is to improve the knowledge base and give queer youth the tools to build communities in Florida where they can better process their emotional trauma and become more resilient (Ozbay et al., 2007). At the interpersonal level, we will work to identify the parents of queer kids who are not completely accepting of their children. After identifying them, we will be showing educational films such as Lead with Love, which has already been validated as an effective intervention for parents (Huebner et al., 2013). We also want to educate the parents on the negative impacts of not accepting their queer child.
For the community level, intervention organizers will work directly with Florida-based queer organizations, such as PRISM and OneOrlando Alliance, and improve the resilience of these groups. Specifically, we would want to address the flexibility and reliability of these groups (Dixon, n.d.), as recent legislation passed in Florida may make it necessary for these groups to be more adaptable. The hope is that with more resilient queer-focused groups, they can be more effective at creating communities among queer youth. Lastly, at the societal level, we want to focus on legislative initiatives at both the local and state levels which would either create more protections for queer youth or provide more funding for organizations that work with queer youth. The initiative for policy change will be spearheaded by community leaders who are associated with the queer organizations contacted at the community level. The thought behind this is that they will be able to have more influence to make positive changes.
References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (January, 2022). The social-ecological model. CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/violencepr...ecologicalmodel.html
Dixon, B. N. (n.d.). Organizational resilience and public health. [PowerPoint Slides]. University of Florida. https://mediasite.video.ufl.ed...91a863e4455853702c1d
Dye, H. L. (2019). Is emotional abuse as harmful as physical and/or sexual abuse? Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 13(4), 399–407. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00292-y
Giano, Z., Wheeler, D. L., & Hubach, R. D. (2020). The frequencies and disparities of adverse childhood experiences in the U.S. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1327. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09411-z
Huebner, D. M., Rullo, J. E., Thoma, B. C., McGarrity, L., & Mackenzie, J. (2013). Piloting Lead with Love: A film-based intervention to improve parents’ responses to their lesbian, gay, and bisexual children. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 34(5), 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-013-0319-y
Izaguirre, A. & Farrington, B. (2023, April 19). Florida expands ‘Don’t Say Gay’; House oks anti-LGBTQ bills. Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/des...83208a89c556543183cb
Kerber, B. D., Zhang, J., Nadeem, E., Stein, R. E. K., Hurlburt, M. S., Heneghan, A., Landsverk, J., & Horwitz, S. M. (2015). Adverse childhood experiences and mental health, chronic medical conditions, and development in young children. Academic Pediatrics, 15(5), 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2015.05.005
Norman, R. E., Byambaa, M., De, R., Butchart, A., Scott, J., & Vos, T. (2012). The long-term health consequences of child physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS medicine, 9(11), e1001349. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001349
Ozbay, F. , Johnson, D. C. , Dimoulas, E. , Morgan, C. A. , Charney, D. , & Southwick, S. (2007). Social support and resilience to stress. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 4(5), 35–40.
Roberts, M. (August, 2020). New CDC data shows LGBTQ youth are more likely to be bullied than straight cisgender youth. Human Rights Campaign. https://www.hrc.org/news/new-c...ight-cisgender-youth
Tran, N. M., Henkhaus, L. E., & Gonzales, G. (2022). Adverse childhood experiences and mental distress among US adults by sexual orientation. JAMA Psychiatry, 79(4), 377–379. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2022.0001
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