Enacted Stigma, Mental Health, and Protective Factors Among Transgender Youth in Canada.

We aimed to assess the Minority Stress Model which proposes that the stress of experiencing stigma leads to adverse mental health outcomes, but social supports (e.g., school and family connectedness) will reduce this negative effect.

More Than a Feeling? An Empirical Analysis of the Dual-Continua Model on a National Sample of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identified Canadians.

The goal of the study is to investigate whether positive mental health complements mental illness within a theoretically informed (the dual-continua model) and psychometrically tested (the Mental Health Continuum-Short Form) framework. National-level, population-based data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health (CCHS-MH) was used, with comparisons between sexual minority and heterosexual adults. Results show that gay, lesbian, and bisexual Canadians have substantially lower rates of positive mental health and are more likely to have been diagnosed with a mental illness, with the disparities between health and illness being the most pronounced among lesbians and bisexual females.

Mind the gap: predicting the positive mental health of adult sexual minority Canadians.

The goal of the study is to investigate possible predictors of positive mental health, and whether they differ across sexual identity adult groups. Using data from the 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey on Mental Health, multivariate analyses were conducted, including interaction terms, to assess the effects of sexual orientation on various mental illness, health-risk behaviors, and sociological indicators and their correlations with positive mental health. Substantial effect sizes were observed across all sexual identity groups for psychological distress, social provisions and sense of belonging in terms of their influence on positive mental health.

Mental Health Disparities Among Canadian Transgender Youth.

Purpose: This study documented the prevalence of mental health problems among transgender youth in Canada and made comparisons with population-based studies. This study also compared gender identity subgroups and age subgroups (14-18 and 19-25).

Methods: A nonprobability sample of 923 transgender youth from Canada completed an online survey.

Pride and prejudice: factors affecting school attachment among lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual girls.

School attachment is often regarded as a key measure in gauging the integration and wellbeing of students. Previous research suggests that levels of school attachment are generally lower among sexual minority students, but most studies focus on between-gender comparisons and do not conduct within-gender analyses. Using data from the First National Climate Survey on Homophobia and Transphobia in Canadian schools, this study set out to empirically analyze what, if any, differences exist among lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual female students when assessing the relationship between homophobic and gender-negative language, feelings of safety, harassment/direct victimization, and school climate on school attachment.

A queer day in Canada: examining Canadian high school students' experiences with school-based homophobia in two large-scale studies.

The goal of the study is to examine how location (nationally, compared to Canadian regions) is related to indicators of a hostile school environment for sexual minority youth, particularly when physical abuse is used as the outcome variable. Data representing 5,766 Canadian students were analyzed using bivariate and multivariate techniques. Results from the multivariate analyses showed that non-physical abuse was the most significant predictor of homophobically based physical abuse, for both LGBQ and non-LGBQ students.

"We are not aliens, we're people, and we have rights." Canadian human rights discourse and high school climate for LGBTQ students.

Canadian law protects people from discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, but our public schools do not fulfill their ethical and legal obligations where sexual and gender minority youth are concerned. This article reports on a national survey study on homophobia and transphobia in Canadian high schools. Participants (n = 3,607) were questioned about school climate, harassment, school attachment, and institutional interventions.

Exploring taboos: comparing male- and female-perpetrated child sexual abuse.

The objective of this article is to compare male- and female-perpetrated sexual abuse in terms of victim and abuser characteristics, type of abuse, family structure, and worker information. Bivariate tests of significance were performed on the 1998 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, which included 308 male and 37 female abusers. Results show a prevalence rate of 10.

Speaking about the unspeakable: exploring the impact of mother-daughter sexual abuse.

By embarking on multiple interviews with eight survivors (a total of 29 interviews), this article examines the impact of maternal sexual abuse on daughters. Although it is important to recognize the abuse that women lived through, it tells little about their struggles. Thus, as a way to honor the lives of the women interviewed, I have chosen to follow the model of Liz Kelly (1988), who focuses on the impact of sexual abuse in terms of coping, resisting, and surviving.