Date of Award

12-2023

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Discipline

Juvenile Justice

Abstract

In recent years, the United States has experienced an increase in LGBT+ youth perpetrating drugs, sex, and violent offenses. According to identity theory, individuals maintain three main identities that if incongruent can create friction which could lead to crime. The friction may involve the LGBT+ identity and other contributing factors such as demographics age, race, religion, level of education, adverse childhood experiences, stigmatization, discrimination, mental illness, and identity measures (masculine versus feminine identities and sexual minority identity).

This study examined how the LGBT+ identity may create a strain with an individual’s three main identities, personal, group, and societal, and how any contradicting identities may create enough strain to lead an individual toward drug use, possibly as a means of coping. This study utilized secondary data from Wave 1 of the Generations: A Study of the Life and Health of LGB People in a Changing Society, United States, 2016-2019. The sample consisted of 1,518 participants taken from the initial sample size of 366,644 individuals across the United States. The research questions were 1. What aspects of LGB identity predict drug use in LGB youth? 2. What aspects of LGB strain (stigma/discrimination/adverse childhood experiences) predict drug use in LGB youth? 3. Do sexual and gender identity strains, related to religion and mental health predict the likelihood of drug use? 4. Do negative societal perceptions of LGB individuals, childhood gender nonconformity, femininity versus masculinity, stigma, and discrimination, related to appearance as an acceptable-looking man or woman predict LGB youth drug use? The researcher used Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regressions and binary logistic regressions to analyze the data.

The results suggest that the main contributors to LGB drug use are experiences of discrimination, feeling stigmatized, negative religious experiences/views, mental health issues, adverse childhood experiences, and given their identities sexual identity and sexual minority identity. Negative societal perceptions about LGB individuals’ appearance in terms of whether they appear masculine when identifying as a man or feminine given an identity as a woman had no significance. The study has implications for LGB individuals, advocates, policymakers, and stakeholders who are interested in the well-being of LGB youth.

Keywords: LGB, youth, drug use, religion, general strain, identity theory

Committee Chair/Advisor

Camille Gibson

Committee Member

Ling Wu

Committee Member

David Rembert

Committee Member

G. Solomon Osho

Publisher

Prairie View A & M University

Rights

© 2021 Prairie View A & M University

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Date of Digitization

8/21/2024

Contributing Institution

J. B Coleman Library

City of Publication

Prairie View

MIME Type

Application/PDF

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