Understanding Health Risks and Promoting Resilience in Male Youth with Sexual Violence Experience
In 2015, SARAVYC joined a team of researchers seeking to increase health knowledge about and improve services for male youth who have experienced sexual violence. The CIHR funded grant, led by Principal Investigator Dr. Christine Wekerle of McMaster University, focuses on Aboriginal youth health (particularly mental health resilience) as well as the engagement of youths in violence prevention. The […]
FamilySmart Evaluation
FamilySmart Practice Readiness is an innovative program developed by the Institute of Families (IoF) that seeks to improve child and youth mental health by promoting collaborations between doctors, parents, and patients. Two concepts are central to the FamilySmart program: 1) “Together-Centeredness” or the ability of all stakeholders to make decisions collectively, and 2) “FamilySmart […]
Out In Schools
SARAVYC collaborated with Out in Schools, the school-based program operating in British Columbia under the affiliated non-profit organization Out on Screen. Out in Schools is an educational program that uses films and facilitated discussions to teach students and educators about gender, sexuality, and LGBT2Q+ experiences. By addressing issues of homophobia and transphobia, Out in Schools […]
Vancouver Technical High School Wellness Initiative
In collaboration with Vancouver Technical High School, SARAVYC researchers, led by Dr. Sheila Marshall, evaluated their School Wellness Initiative. A Steering committee (called WIN) was created by the school and guides the project. WIN, the administration, students, teachers, and counselors were consulted about what wellness means for their school. A survey was constructed from consultations […]
Girl2Girl: Harnessing text messaging to reduce teenage pregnancy among LGB girls
Despite compelling data that lesbian and bisexual women are at risk for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), programs tailored to the unique needs of adolescent lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) women continue to be nonexistent. Perhaps not surprisingly, LGB women’s perceptions of HIV/STI and pregnancy risk is low, even though they report higher rates of […]
World Prevalence of Sexual Minority Youth
Most of the sexual orientation research done on adolescents originates from the US and only a small number of publications come from other countries. For instance, there have been some recent publications from Turkey and Northern Ireland, but very little research published from African countries or the Middle East. The existence of LGBTQ2S communities has sometimes been phrased as a cultural specific phenomenon of the western world- this project aims to determine if that is the case.
The National Inventory of School District Interventions in Support of LGBTQ Student Wellbeing: Final Report
The National Inventory of School District Interventions in Support of LGBTQ Student Wellbeing was one of five research areas in a large project funded by a $2 million grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and headed by Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc at University of British Columbia, “Reducing stigma, promoting resilience: Population health interventions for […]
School-based interventions to reduce health disparities among LGBTQ youth: Considering the evidence
There is a need for health promotion interventions for LGBTQ youth that can reduce critical health gaps that LGBTQ youth experience. Schools are an important environment for youth, and a key place where public health professionals, partnering with school staff, can support effective health promotion strategies. Indeed, some of the best strategies for promoting youth […]
Sexual behaviors and partner characteristics among lesbian, bisexual, and other sexual minority adolescent women compared to their heterosexual peers
Abstract Purpose: Data suggest that lesbian and bisexual adolescents engage in risky sexual behaviors at higher rates than heterosexual girls. Whether these findings also apply to girls of other sexual identities is less well understood. Potential differences in risky sexual behaviors reported by lesbian versus bisexual adolescents are also underreported in the literature. Methods: Data were collected […]
