Psychology Study Focusing on Latinx LGBTQ Youth
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is joining three other universities to explore the impact of families on the mental health of Latinx lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth.
Associate Professor Kirsten Gonzalez, in the UT Department of Psychology, is a co-investigator on a five-year, $2.6 million National Institute of Health grant that includes the University of Arizona, University of Miami, and University of Florida.
Gonzalez is a licensed psychologist and the qualitative expert on the team. As part of the project, she will facilitate focus groups with Latinx LGBTQ youth to help develop and validate a measure of parental acceptance. Then she will work with the principal investigators and lead data analysis as the investigators work to publish and disseminate their findings.
The research will focus on Latinx families in Florida and Arizona as it examines Latinx cultural factors such as gender norms and religion; environmental factors such as discrimination; and mental health outcomes. Ultimately the research could lead mental health providers to more targeted, culturally informed family interventions.
They plan to delve into family dynamics, including both how youth perceive their parents’ attitudes and how that affects the parents’ feeling about the relationship.
The psychological well-being of LGBTQ people of color, as well as family acceptance of them, are areas of focus for Gonzalez. “As a mixed methods researcher, my scholarship is informed by social justice and aims to center the experiences of marginalized communities broadly, and Latinx LGBTQ communities specifically,” she said.
Since joining UT in 2017, Gonzalez has received a Chancellor’s LGBTQ Advocate Award and Early Career Research, Early Career Teaching, and Diversity Leadership awards from the College of Arts and Sciences.
By Amy Beth Miller