Our Research

The global COVID pandemic, social uprisings, and a wave of discriminatory policy proposals have highlighted the ways in which structural oppression contributes to health disparities facing youth of color and those identifying as LGBTQ. Young people living at the intersection of multiple types of oppression face the greatest burden, yet also have unique strengths and supports. Existing research has demonstrated persistent substance use disparities across sexual orientation, gender identity, and racial/ethnic groups – as individual categories. However, very little research has examined substance use among those with multiple stigmatized identities. Capitalizing on two very large datasets and a novel analytic technique, this study seeks to identify groups with the highest prevalence of past 30-day alcohol, e-cigarette, and marijuana use. This first step in a larger project will determine key intersecting identities for qualitative interviews regarding interpersonal and community supports that can reduce health disparities.