This book provides an overview of risk and protective factors for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth and emerging adults to inform the clinical practice of mental health professionals who work with this population. Documentation of LGBTQ+ health disparities is well-established, but much of that work has focused on adults. Additionally, while there has been a greater push for the integration of mental health practice with general healthcare delivery in recent years, there are few resources for educating mental health professionals on how to work within interdisciplinary teams to address the psychological, physical, and behavioral health care needs of LGBTQ+ people. This book addresses gaps in the literature, such as the needs of young age groups and integration of physical and mental approaches to care, which have traditionally been neglected in the health disparities literature for psychologists and other mental health professionals. This book is grounded in Minority Stress Theory, as well as multicultural, intersectional, and positive youth development frameworks. It emphasizes holistic health perspectives, integrated care approaches (of mental health with general health service delivery), and interdisciplinary team efforts targeting both the psychological and physical health needs of children, adolescents, and emerging adults.
Author Biography:
Cristina L. Magalhães, PhD, LMHC, is associate director and professor of clinical psychology in the Health Emphasis of the Clinical PsyD Program, Fellow of the Rockway Institute for LGBTQ Studies, and Coordinator of the Rockway Certificate in LGBTQ Psychology at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, Los Angeles. As a clinician, Dr. Magalhães has over 20 years of experience working with couples, families, and individuals across the life span in community mental health centers, residential settings, and independent practice. She is licensed to practice as a mental health counselor in Florida, and as a psychologist in California and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her research, writing, and speaking engagements have been primarily in the areas of cross-cultural assessment, anxiety and trauma related disorders, and LGBT psychology, with an emphasis on transgender health.
Richard A. Sprott, PhD, teaches in the Department of Human Development and Women's Studies at California State University, East Bay and teaches graduate level courses at various universities in the San Francisco Bay Area, including UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Integral Studies, and Holy Names University. His early work was on social and language development in early childhood. In addition, he has a long history of conducting educational program evaluations for migrant farmworker families in the Midwest, which highlight the ways in which social organizations and communities help and hinder the educational achievement of migrant farmworker children. He is currently directing research projects focused on identity development and health/well-being in people who express alternative sexualities and non-traditional relationships, and issues facing homeless LGBTQ youth. He is current president-elect of Division 44 of APA: the Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. All of these efforts highlight the ways in which stigma, prejudice, minority dynamics, health, language, identity development and community development all intersect and affect each other.
G. Nic Rider, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Program in Human Sexuality and Co-Associate Director of Research for the National Center for Gender Spectrum Health. Dr. Rider is also a licensed psychologist and gender and sexuality specialist with clinical and research experience examining minority stressors, health disparities, and care utilization of LGBTQ+ individuals across the lifespan. Using an intersectionality framework, Dr. Rider is particularly interested in how interlocking systems of power and oppressive experiences related to having multiple marginalized identities influence health and wellbeing for LGBTQ+ youth of color. Dr. Rider has served as a study coordinator on a NIH-funded research project which resulted in several publications that documented barriers to care and minority stressors as well as prevalence rates of risk factors, protective factors, health concerns, and health care utilization among transgender and gender diverse youth. Dr. Rider is currently Co-Chair of the Asian American Psychological Association’s Division on LGBTQ.
