Exploring the role of LGBT adolescent family victimization on adult health-seeking behavior

This study sought to understand what effect family victimization of lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) teens had on their young adult health-seeking behavior, if any. The author used self-reported sexual orientation status and reported family victimization variables from Wave III, and variables tracking self-reported general health and unmet medical-care need from Wave IV to test their hypothesis. This will be the first study of its kind to utilize Add Health national cohort study data to test associations between reported LGBTQ adolescent family and peer victimization and adult health-seeking behavior. The use of the Add Health data will allow for the use of a stratified sample of sexual minorities and their non-minority peers to test researcher hypotheses, while also allowing for data to be compared from the same individuals in adolescence and young-adulthood. The study found that individuals identifying as mostly heterosexual were more likely to have an unmet need for medical care in young adulthood (unadjusted odds ratio [OR]= 1.68) than their 100% heterosexual peers, with bisexual persons with a similar risk (OR=1.66). After controlling for self-reported general health, “mostly heterosexuals”had an increased (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]=1.62] risk of unmet need for medical care. Thus, significant associations were shown between adolescent LGBTQ self-identification and unmet need for medical care in young adulthood.