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Abstract:
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Very little data exist on the proportion of youth who identify as a sexual minority in the United States, and the health disparities that exist between sexual minority youth and their heterosexual counterparts. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a study of students in grades 9 to 12 conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) every other year, provides a unique opportunity to investigate sexual orientation health disparities. Unfortunately, prior to 2015, a minority of jurisdictions administered questions to assess sexual minority status, and these were not standardized. Preliminary analysis of 2005 and 2007 data found that 14 jurisdictions asked at least one sexual orientation-related measure: 9 asked about sexual orientation identity, 12 asked about gender of sexual contacts, and 5 asked about harassment based on perceived sexual identity. In this talk, I will present new data from subsequent waves of YRBS and discuss implications of using these disparate measures to identify sexual minority health disparities.
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