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Principal Investigator: Laura Marie Sinko
Organization: TEMPLE UNIV OF THE COMMONWEALTH
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $250,709
Funding agency: National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
Project Summary
Research has documented that gender-based violence (GBV; e.g. intimate partner violence, sexual assault, child abuse,
hate-motivated violence) disproportionately impacts sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations, with unaddressed
victimization experiences representing a key driver of SGM health disparities (e.g., suicidality, substance use, depression,
HIV transmission, morbidity, mortality). To advance from identifying these disparities to intervening, research that
evaluates SGM barriers to seeking help and GBV recovery needs, as well as the social, cultural, and structural influences
of these processes at multiple levels is required. There is a scarcity of tools to measure GBV-specific concepts validated in
SGM populations, with no current instruments to measure the help-seeking barriers SGM survivors face and their
recovery progress. Thus, there is a critical need to develop these instruments to inform acceptable and effective
interventions to increase the access, engagement, care linkages, and effectiveness of survivor support infrastructure for
SGM populations. Through an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, we aim to: 1) develop an SGM Barriers
to Help-seeking and an SGM GBV Healing Scale and 2) psychometrically evaluate these instruments. Study aims will
draw on four sequentially collected sources of data: a) an existing dataset of SGM ethnographic narrative interviews
(N=40, n=20 gender minority survivors), b) data gathered from our community advisory board (N=10), c) cognitive
interviews with SGM survivors (N=35), and d) a national online survey (N=1000), with quota sampling to ensure
adequate representation of cisgender, sexual minority men, cisgender, sexual minority women, and transgender/ otherwise
gender expansive people, purposively sampled to achieve maximum diversity in race and ethnicity. A community
advisory board with SGM GBV survivors, clinicians, scientific experts, and community stakeholders will be engaged
throughout the research process ensuring potential impact and sustainability. This study is innovative because it uses rich
community-engaged approaches to articulate help-seeking and recovery experiences at multiple levels, incorporating
SGM survivors at all stages of the process, with an emphasis on recovery rather than deficit. In turn, the instruments
created are expected to open new horizons in SGM survivorship research and practice, specifically the ability to
illuminate SGM recovery needs and prioritize interventions to mitigate drivers of SGM health disparities at multiple
levels of influence. Successful completion of this project is expected to have a positive impact by enhancing our ability to:
1) evaluate future help-seeking and recovery intervention effectiveness, 2) enhance help-seeking and recovery exploration
in SGM populations, and 3) determine how changes in policy influence help-seeking and recovery for SGM populations.
The study's key deliverables will include two instruments measuring help-seeking barriers and GBV recovery needs,
validated in SGM populations, using rigorous community-engaged qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. These expected outcomes will support NIH priorities for Health Disparities Science by strengthening
measurement of help-seeking barriers and recovery in SGM survivors, thereby improving understanding on multi-level
areas for additional exploration to improve health disparities in these populations.
Terms: <AIDS Virus><Access to Care><Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Virus><Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Virus><Address><Adherence><Area><Articulation><Behavioral><Caring><Child Abuse><Childhood Abuse><Clinical><Cognitive Discrimination><Collaborations><Communities><Data><Data Set><Decrease disparity><Decrease health disparities><Development><Disability status><Discrimination><Disparities><Disparity><Domestic Violence><Effectiveness><Effectiveness of Interventions><Ensure><Ethnic Origin><Ethnicity><Ethnography><Face><Foundations><Future><Gender><Gender Identity><Gender and Sexual Minorities><Gender expansive><Goals><HIV><Hate><Health><Health Disparities Research><Health Priorities><Health Services><Health Services Accessibility><Health disparities related research><Health disparity mitigation><Health disparity reduction><Heterosexuals><Human Immunodeficiency Viruses><Individual><Infrastructure><Intervention><Intervention Strategies><Interview><Knowledge><LAV-HTLV-III><Life><Literature><Lower disparity><Lower health disparities><Lymphadenopathy-Associated Virus><Measurement><Measures><Medical><Mental Depression><Mental Health><Mental Hygiene><Methods><Mission><Mitigate health disparities><Morbidity><Morbidity - disease rate><Murder><NIH><National Institutes of Health><Outcome><Persons><Play><Policies><Population><Process><Psychological Health><Psychometrics><Public Health><QOC><QOL><Quality of Care><Quality of life><Race><Races><Recovery><Reduce health disparities><Research><Research Project Summaries><Research Resources><Resources><Role><Safety><Sampling><Service setting><Services><Sex Orientation><Sexual Orientation><Sexual and Gender Minorities><Shelter facility><Social Service><Social Work><Solid><Source><Survey Instrument><Surveys><Survivors><Testing><Transmission><United States National Institutes of Health><Validation><Victimization><Violence><Virus-HIV><Voice><Work><access to health services><access to services><access to treatment><accessibility to health services><assaulted sexually><availability of services><biological sex><care access><cis-female><cis-gender><cis-gender woman><cis-woman><cisgender><cisgender woman><cognitive interview><community advisory board><community advisory committee><community advisory panel><community engaged approach><community engaged approaches><community engaged strategies><community engaged strategy><community engagement><community partnered approach><community partnered strategy><depression><design><designing><developmental><disparities in morbidity><disparities in mortality><disparity in health><disparity reduction><effective intervention><engagement with communities><ethnographic><experience><experienced discrimination><faces><facial><gender minority><gender minority community><gender minority group><gender minority health disparity><gender minority individual><gender minority people><gender minority population><gender-based violence><harassment><healing><health care settings><health disparities science><health disparity><health service access><health services availability><healthcare settings><help seeking><help-seeking behavior><improved><innovate><innovation><innovative><instrument><interventional strategy><intimate partner violence><lens><lenses><marginalization><marginalized group><marginalized individual><marginalized people><marginalized population><mitigate disparity><morbidity disparities><mortality><mortality disparity><nonbinary><peer><perceived discrimination><perception of discrimination><racial><racial background><racial origin><racism><reduce disparity><reduction in disparity><screening><screenings><self-reported discrimination><service availability><sexual assault><sexual attack><sexual minority><sexual minority group><sexual minority individual><sexual minority men><sexual minority people><sexual minority population><sexual minority women><shelter><shelter housing><shelters><social><social role><socio-economic><socio-economically><socioeconomically><socioeconomics><structural determinants><structural factors><substance use><substance using><suicidal><suicidality><survivorship><tool><trans*><trans-women><transgender><transgender women><transmission process><transwoman><transwomen><treatment access><validations><violence victimization><violent><violent behavior>