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It may seem obvious that if you want to know someone’s sexual orientation you could simply ask them.  “Are you gay?”  But in reality it is much more complicated than that.  Recently, the National Center for Health Statistics issued a report on how to ask these questions for the National Health Interview Survey, which is one of our primary sources of information about the health of various American communities.

For this health interview, the primary aspect of sexual orientation they are interested in studying is sexual identity rather than attractions or behaviors.  The report acknowledges that measuring sexual identity presents challenges because it is complex concept.  Interestingly, they found that many non-LGBT people don’t have much concept of their sexual orientation and instead of identifying as “heterosexual” or “straight” they are more likely to identify as “not gay.”  They also found … Read More »

Dr. Mustanski, director of the IMPACT Program, received the distinguished scientific contribution award from the American Psychological Association Division for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues.  The Division offers this award for distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to lesbian, gay, or bisexual psychological issues. The winners of this award have made far-reaching and visionary contributions to the development of a science of LGBT psychology and have provided the science base for practice, education, and the development of public policy. Many of these award winners are pioneers who first asked affirmative research questions about the lives of LGBT people, their families, and their communities.

This week we published a new study in the journal Health Psychology that found that young gay and bisexual men in serious relationships have nearly eight times the rate of unprotected sex as compared to when they are in casual relationships.  The findings provide a new direction for prevention efforts in this population who account for nearly 70 percent of all new HIV/AIDS diagnoses in adolescents and young adults in the United States and who also have the highest increase in new infections.  Below are some excerpts from my interview with the Health Sciences Editor at Northwestern University.

IMPACT Program undergraduate research trainees Alan, Laurel, Elizabeth, and Caroline presented their research at the annual UIC undergraduate research forum.  Caroline presented qualitative data on youth self-reports of hormones for changing genders.  Elizabeth presented on mental health and HIV risk, while Alan presented on the effects of victimization on mental health.  Laurel, who trained in both the IMPACT Program and Dr. Mary Murphy’s lab presented some of her work with Dr. Murphy on gender roles and academic performance. Alan won third place in the social sciences.

The IMPACT Program is heading to San Francisco for the 4th annual conference on new media, youth, and sexual health.  Dr. Mustanski has attended this conference every year since is started, and it has just kept getting better. This amazing meeting brings together youth, researchers, funders, nonprofit organizations, and health departments all focused on sharing ideas about how to use technology to improve the sexual health of youth people.

This year Dr. Mustanski has helped to organize a pre-conference workshop that will tout the successes and tackle the issues of conducting mobile and digital research studies with youth around sexual health.  On April 1st he will present a workshop focused on successes creating interventions from the youth perspective.

On April 2nd, IMPACT staff member Lou Bigelow will present a field report in a session titled, “Sexuality, Gender & Feminism in the Age … Read More »