School belonging, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms in adolescents: An examination of sex, sexual attraction status, and urbanicity

Renee Vickerman Galliher, Sharon Scales Rostosky, Hannah K. Hughes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

144 Scopus citations

Abstract

Using data from Wave II of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Bearman, P. S., Jones, J., and Udry, J. R. http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design.html, 1997), we conducted multivariate analyses to examine three indicators of psychosocial adjustment (school belonging, self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and their associations with sexual attraction status, sex, and urbanicity. In general, sexual minority adolescents reported lower psychological adjustment than adolescents endorsing other-sex attractions only, with sexual minority females at particular risk. Further, differential patterns of risk for sexual minority youth emerged across rural, urban, and suburban communities. We conclude by discussing implications of these findings for addressing the psychosocial needs of sexual minority adolescents.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)235-245
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Youth and Adolescence
Volume33
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2004

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research uses data from Add Health, a program project designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris, and funded by a Grant No. P01-HD31921 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies. Special acknowledgment is due to Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Persons interested in obtaining data files from Add Health should contact Add Health, Carolina Population Center, 123 W. Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27516-2524. Dr. Rostosky’s work on this project was partially funded by a 2003 University of Kentucky Summer Research Fellowship. Preliminary analyses from this project were presented at the 2002 meeting of the Society for Research on Adolescence, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Keywords

  • Adjustment
  • Adolescence
  • Sexual minority

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Education
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)

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