Dear Safe Schools Coalition Members and Friends:
((1) GLSEN Washington State Small Grant Application: Money Available to Help with Projects … apply by March 1st
(2) recently published research: "Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults"
(3) recently published research: "Multiculturalism as a Dimension of School Climate: The Impact on the Academic Achievement of Asian American and Hispanic Youth"
(4) Physical consequences of bullying with academic implications
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(1) GLSEN Washington State Small Grant Application: Money Available to Help with Projects … apply by March 1st
GLSEN Washington is offering three grants of up to $75.00 to students, staff, and teachers in Washington schools. These grants are intended to be spent on projects, events, or curriculum materials to help make schools safer for all students, regardless
of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression.
Possible projects include (but not limited to) hosting a guest speaker at a school assembly, purchasing GLSEN's Lunchbox for staff training, providing food at a Gay-Straight Alliance event, or using the grant to attend an LGBT-related or educational conference.
Grants will be offered to the students, staff, or teachers who best articulate how they will use the grant to implement an anti-bias, no discrimination plan during No-Name Calling week or other GLSEN related events. Applicants will submit a grant application
that will be evaluated by the review committee who will determine the recipients of the grant. Recipients will be asked to provide a short report on the event or project and receipts for all purchases. Recipients will also be asked to attend our Annual Banquet
and present their project.
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(2) recently published research: "Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults"
Caitlin Ryan PhD, ACSW, Stephen T. Russell PhD, David Huebner PhD, MPH, Rafael Diaz PhD, MSW, Jorge Sanchez BA
Article first published online: 15 NOV 2010
DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-6171.2010.00246.x
© 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing
Volume 23, Issue 4, pages 205–213, November 2010
ISSUE: The role of family acceptance as a protective factor for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) adolescents and young adults has not been established.
METHODS: A quantitative measure with items derived from prior qualitative work retrospectively assessed family accepting behaviors in response to LGBT adolescents' sexual orientation and gender expression
and their relationship to mental health, substance abuse, and sexual risk in young adults (N= 245).
FINDINGS: Family acceptance predicts greater self-esteem, social support, and general health status; it also protects against depression, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation and behaviors.
CONCLUSIONS: Family acceptance of LGBT adolescents is associated with positive young adult mental and physical health. Interventions that promote parental and caregiver acceptance of LGBT adolescents
are needed to reduce health disparities.
The CDC just sent this message about the study to its DASH-funded sites:
Study finds family acceptance of LGBT youth protects against depression, substance abuse, suicide
Posted In: Manufacturing
By EurekAlert
Monday, December 6, 2010
For the first time, researchers have established a clear link between accepting family attitudes and behaviors towards their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children and significantly decreased risk and better overall health in adulthood.
The study shows that specific parental and caregiver behaviors -- such as advocating for their children when they are mistreated because of their LGBT identity or supporting their gender expression -- protect against depression, substance abuse, suicidal thoughts
and suicide attempts in early adulthood. In addition, LGBT youth with highly accepting families have significantly higher levels of self-esteem and social support in young adulthood. The study is published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric
Nursing, a journal of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses, in a peer-reviewed article titled "Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults."
Despite all the recent attention to health risks and disparities for lesbian, gay and bisexual youth, prior to this study, little was known about how families express acceptance and support for their LGBT children. Moreover, no prior research had examined
the relationship between family acceptance of LGBT adolescents and health and mental health concerns in emerging adulthood.
"At a time when the media and families are becoming acutely aware of the risk that many LGBT youth experience, our findings that family acceptance protects against suicidal thoughts and behaviors, depression and substance abuse offer a gateway to hope
for LGBT youth and families that struggle with how to balance deeply held religious and personal values with love for their LGBT children," said Dr. Caitlin Ryan, PhD, Director of the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University. "I have worked
on LGBT health and mental health for 35 years and putting our research into practice by developing a new model to help diverse families support their LGBT children is the most hopeful work I've ever done."
Ann P. Haas, Ph.D., Director of Prevention Projects for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, noted, "With this new groundbreaking study, Ryan and her colleagues have provided the strongest evidence to date that acceptance and support from parents
and caregivers promote well-being among LGBT youth and help protect them from depression and suicidal behavior. These findings open the door to a whole new focus on how families can be helped to more fully engage in the kind of behaviors that reduce suicide
risk in LGBT adolescents and young adults."
"Times have changed," said Stephen Russell, PhD, President Elect of the Society for Research on Adolescence and a consultant to the Family Acceptance Project. "More and more families want to be accepting of their children. Yet, many families still struggle
when a child comes out as LGBT. It's essential to have research like this to deeply understand the ways that families show their acceptance, so that we can identify how to support families."
The study, authored by Dr. Caitlin Ryan and her team from the Family Acceptance Project, which shows that accepting behaviors of parents and caregivers towards their LGBT children are protective against mental health risks –
including suicidal behaviors -- has critical implications for changing how families relate to their LGBT children and how LGBT youth are served by a wide range of providers across disciplines and systems of care, including custodial care systems such as foster
care. The study was funded by The California Endowment, a health foundation dedicated to expanding access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities.
Major Research Findings:
- Family accepting behaviors towards LGBT youth during adolescence protect against suicide, depression and substance abuse.
- LGBT young adults who reported high levels of family acceptance during adolescence had significantly higher levels of self-esteem, social support and general health, compared to peers with low levels of family acceptance.
- LGBT young adults who reported low levels of family rejection during adolescence were over three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts and to report suicide attempts, compared to those with high levels of family acceptance.
- High religious involvement in families was strongly associated with low acceptance of LGBT children.
Dr. Ryan and her team at the Family Acceptance Project are currently developing a new evidence-based family model of wellness, prevention and care for LGBT adolescents, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This model uses a behavioral
approach to help ethnically and religiously diverse families decrease rejection and increase support for their LGBT children to reduce risk for suicide, depression, substance abuse, and HIV, to promote well-being and to prevent homelessness and placement in
custodial care. This systems-level approach helps communities and providers to engage diverse families as allies in decreasing their LGBT children's risk and increasing their well-being while respecting the family's deeply held values. This work is being conducted
in English, Spanish and Chinese with families from all ethnic backgrounds, including immigrant and very low income families, and those whose children are out-of-home in foster care and juvenile justice facilities.
The existing approach to serving LGBT adolescents by pediatricians, nurses, social workers, school counselors and others has focused almost exclusively on serving LGBT youth alone and through peer support, rather than in the context of their families,
and does not consider the impact of family reactions on the adolescent's health and well-being.
In addition to providing direct services for families with LGBT children and working with communities in the U.S., the Family Acceptance Project is collaborating with organizations, providers, advocates and families to develop an international movement
of family acceptance to promote wellness and healthy futures for LGBT children, youth and young adults.
"Family Acceptance in Adolescence and the Health of LGBT Young Adults" is the third in a series of research papers on outcomes related to family acceptance and rejection of LGBT adolescents, supporting positive LGBT youth development, school experiences
and providing family-related care to be released by the Family Acceptance Project.
These studies will be published in peer-reviewed journals designed for providers, caregivers and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and practice settings.
Dan Lentine, MPH
Public Health Analyst
Division of Adolescent and School Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Desk phone: 770-488-6166
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(3) recently published research: "Multiculturalism as a Dimension of School Climate: The Impact on the Academic Achievement of Asian American and Hispanic Youth"
Janet Changa and Thao N. Leb
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology
Volume 16, Issue 4, October 2010, Pages 485-492
doi:10.1037/a0020654
Available online 17 November 2010.
Multiculturalism constitutes an important element of school climate, but the relation between perceived multiculturalism and academic achievement has not been widely studied. This study examined the influence of students' perceptions of school support
for multiculturalism on academic achievement among 280 Asian American and Hispanic youth, including ethnic identity and ethnocultural empathy as potential mediators. Results of structural equation modeling revealed that perceived multiculturalism was significantly
positively related to ethnocultural empathy for Asian Americans and Hispanics, and that ethnocultural empathy, in turn, was predictive of academic achievement for Hispanics only. Results of bootstrapping to test for mediation effects revealed ethnocultural
empathy to be a salient mediator for Hispanic youth. Although ethnic identity did not mediate the link between multiculturalism and academic achievement, ethnic identity was significantly predictive of achievement for Hispanics. On the whole, these findings
suggest that fostering a school climate supportive of multiculturalism may improve empathy toward ethnic out-groups. Furthermore, schools that promote compassion and tolerance for diverse ethnic groups may achieve better academic outcomes among Hispanic youth.
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(4) Physical consequences of bullying with academic implications
Great article about a number of studies, entitled "Inside the bullied brain: The alarming neuroscience of taunting" by Emily Anthes - November 28, 2010 - Globe Newspaper, Boston, MA
Among findings the article reports are these:
- One study found that "[young adults] who reported having been mistreated by their peers had observable abnormalities in a part of the brain known as the corpus callosum — a thick bundle of fibers that connects
the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and which is vital in visual processing, memory, and more. The neurons in their corpus callosums had less myelin, a coating that speeds communication between the cells —
vital in an organ like the brain where milliseconds matter."
- Another study found that "being tormented by other kids can recalibrate children’s levels of cortisol, a hormone pumped out by the body during times of stress."
- Still another found that "boys who are occasionally bullied have higher levels of cortisol than their peers. Bullied girls, meanwhile, seem to have abnormally low levels of the hormone." and the researcher "speculates that cortisol may, in fact, underlie
many of the adverse effects of bullying: It can weaken the functioning of the immune system, and at high levels can damage and even kill neurons in the hippocampus, potentially leading to memory problems that could make academics more difficult.
Indeed, [the researcher] has already found that teens who are bullied perform worse on tests of verbal memory than their peers."
- "… together, these early findings suggest that bullying, even the verbal kind, is more similar to physical and sexual abuse than we might like to admit. No longer can we draw a clear line between the two kinds of mistreatment —
they can both produce the same kind of trauma."
[my emphasis -- BR]
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