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Purpose: This paper presents an exploratory analysis of minority stress and resiliency processes among parents in LGBTQ families. The paper examines two unique minority stress processes – (1) parents experiencing sexual and/or gender minority stress due to the stigmatization of their own identities as individuals and (2) parents sharing the gender minority stress faced by their transgender and gender expansive (TGE) child, and in the context of their parent–child relationship.

Methodology: Between 2017 and 2018 in-depth, in-person qualitative interviews on the topics of gender, stress, and resilience were conducted with 12 parents in LGBTQ families. Audio recordings were transcribed and then open coded using ATLAS.ti qualitative data analysis software. Analyses of data were informed by critical intersectional theories that locate gender and sexuality within structures of social and racial oppression.

Findings: Interview data indicate that minority stress is experienced by parents experiencing sexual and/or gender minority stress due to the stigmatization of their own identities, as well as among parents sharing the gender minority stress faced by their TGE child in the context of their parent–child relationship. Parents described community resilience and minority coping through interpersonal, community, and institutional support. This paper provides evidence that sexual and gender minority stressors are enhanced and resiliency factors are reduced among those experiencing racism and economic disadvantage.

Research limitations: This is an exploratory study conducted with a small sample of parents in a specific geographic area.

Originality/Value: These data provide initial evidence to support further analyses of the dyadic minority stressors within parent–child relationships in LGBTQ families

The purpose of this paper is to share the research on the use of service-learning pedagogy as a strategy to promote engaged learning that positively impacts resilience. It purports that although often overlooked as a teaching and learning strategy, service-learning offers a viable method for supporting persistence and resiliency in largely minority population.

The research utilizes data from both quantitative and qualitative measures (surveys/questionnaires and open ended responses collected from focus groups). The data were collected over 15 months from undergraduate students who represent 5 different content areas (nursing, public health, psychology, nutrition and physical education).

The data revealed that students positively favor service-learning pedagogy and value the tenets of civic responsibility and social justice. These outcomes contribute to a positive impact on persistence and resiliency.

This research highlights the findings from a small group of students enrolled in a specialized program, therefore may lack generalizability. Future research should replicate the study on a larger scale.

This paper includes both theoretical foundational knowledge and practical applications to support faculty teaching and learning. Additionally, it seeks to support and increase understanding of strategies that positively impact persistence and resilience constructs.

The social implications of this research reflect an understanding of the inherent needs of students from underrepresented and/or underserved populations.

This paper fills a void in the literature at the higher education level, by offering specific strategies, which focus on methods to support resilience through increased student engagement, civic responsibility and critical thinking. Additionally, historically black colleges and universities are among the least empirically examined institutions in American higher education.

African American male students have traditionally received the most negative treatment by public educators. This study seeks to assess whether a school known to help disadvantaged students to become successful students will include African American males. The study used Henderson and Milstein's Six Trait Resiliency Model (2003): increase pro-social bonding, set clear and consistent boundaries, teach life skills, provide caring and support, set and communicate high expectations and provide opportunity for meaningful participation. This study examined the relationships between 12 African American male students in grades 3–8 and their 10 classroom teachers (nine Caucasians and one African American).

The current literature on the educational progress of immigrant students within the host system is encapsulated in the thesis that these students will face difficulties, and that these difficulties will more often than not lead to a failure to meet the demands of the system for the majority of the immigrant students. An apposite comment by Portes (1996), queried whether the children of immigrants would be able to work their way upwards into “…the middle-class mainstream” or whether they would be blocked in this ascent based on their migrant status, and become part of an “multiethnic underclass or join an expanded multiethnic underclass.” Súarez-Orozco and Súarez-Orozco (1995, 2000) completed this perception by uncovering the implicit viewpoint within which this query was nested. He foregrounded the domination of sensationalism and myth in discussions of the “natural process” of assimilation of minorities. Finally, current discussion on the issue of these so-called at-risk students centres on how they can be made successful at school.

Purpose: The goal of Volume 21 of Advances in Medical Sociology, entitled Sexual and Gender Minority Health, is to showcase recent developments and areas for future research related to the health, well-being, and healthcare experiences of LGBTQA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, Asexual, and related communities that do not identify as heterosexual) persons and communities.

Approach: In this introduction to the volume, we trace the historical development of research on sexual and gender minority (SGM) health, discussing how priorities, theories, and evidence have evolved over time. We conclude with brief suggestions for future research and an overview of the articles presented in this volume.

Findings: Research on SGM health has flourished in the past two decades. This trend has occurred in conjunction with a period of intense social, political, and legal discourse about the civil rights of SGM persons, which has increased understanding and recognition of SGM experiences. However, recent advances have often been met with resistance and backlash rooted in enduring social stigma and long histories of discrimination and prejudice that reinforce and maintain health disparities faced by SGM populations.

Value: Our review highlights the need for additional research to understand minority stress processes, risk factors, and resiliency, particularly for those at the intersection of SGM and racial/ethnic or socioeconomic marginality.

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both educators and students adapted to course delivery modes no longer centered on in-person interactions. Resiliency and self-regulation are key to success in online contexts, but the rapid transition to remote learning left many students without the necessary support to develop these skills. Much of the existing literature on self-regulation and resiliency focuses on cognitive processes and strategies such as goal orientation, time management, and mindset. However, the added stress and trauma of learning in the context of a global pandemic highlighted the many other factors relevant to students’ development of these skills. Drawing from the literature, the authors explore evidence-informed teaching practices to foster self-regulation and resiliency, highlight the power and privilege of being able to be resilient, advocate for the development of pedagogies of kindness, and emphasize the “how” of implementing techniques to best support students. The authors provide evidence-informed suggestions with the goal of assisting instructors and students during times of high stress, while acknowledging their limitations in addressing structural inequalities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the authors argue that evidence-informed techniques and compassionate pedagogies adopted during a period of upheaval remain applicable to future in-person and online pedagogies.

The paper aims to report findings from research conducted that illustrates cross-cultural differences and similarities on the role obstacles, as defined by leadership antecedents, play in the levels of resilience found in leaders. While research has demonstrated a link between obstacles and the development of resilience in leadership, previous studies have not looked at whether this link exists across cultures and what differences or factors might affect this link.

The research provides additional evidence that the types of developmental experiences and the level of self-differentiation in the leader relates to the levels of resiliency within a leader. Furthermore, the research examines cultural differences in the findings and offers possible explanations for them. The study reflects responses from 365 participants (151 from USA, 112 from India and 102 from Germany). The study uses leadership antecedent categories, the Differentiation of Self Inventory, Short Form and the Connor Davidson Resilience Scale. Demographic information on participants included sex, age, level of education, years of leadership experience and industry.

The results demonstrate that resiliency is positively correlated with both the leadership antecedents and differentiation of self. In light of the research findings, the authors highlight the relationship between resiliency and the leadership antecedents, while providing rationale for cultural differences in this relationship, and highlight the relationship between resiliency and differentiation of self, while providing rationale for cultural differences in this relationship.

The research implications include being able to determine whether a leader’s cultural identity has any effect on the development of resilience through hardships. Additionally, the research has the ability to have more generalized results, as the study looks at leaders across three distinct cultures. The study has two major limitations. First, the study was conducted with a convenient sample, which may not be a true representation across the entire culture. Second, the study only looks at three distinct cultures, which represent three of the ten major cultural clusters in the world, according to the leadership literature.

If leadership developers can begin to understand the interplay between developmental antecedents and the development of resilience, training can be tailored more specifically, even within distinct cultures. Additionally, understanding how differing cultures develop resilience and understand hardships as a part of that development, researchers can begin to isolate other variables that contribute to the development of resilience and other desirable leadership attributes, regardless of cultural background.

The study’s findings provide an additional argument for why obstacles and developmental experiences are a logical and necessary part of the formation process for leaders. Additionally, the study looks at the importance of the cultural dimension of an emerging leader, as it relates to the development of resilience. If hardships represent a significant role in leadership formation, then understanding this step is vital for the development of future leaders and leadership training in diverse cultural contexts. Everyone experiences some sort of hardship in life; however, effective leaders may intentionally use these obstacles as a training ground by overcoming them.

Everyone is vulnerable. The degree of balance (or not) between protective factors present (i.e., supports available and accessible) and risk factors present (i.e., cumulative challenges confronted) in an individual's life is always relative and linked to inevitable perceptual processes (see Spencer, 2006, 2008). That is, individuals’ perceptions of risk and protection are just as important as the actual presence of risk and protective factors. Thus, it is inescapable that human beings – particularly Black males in the United States – will experience some level of vulnerability at every point across the life course. In fact, a persistent dilemma has been the narrow focus of social science literature on the risks and persistent challenges confronted by Black males. Unfortunately, the successes achieved or manifested resiliency of Black males remains under-analyzed. Thus, a resiliency theme is generally not integrated into the training of those intended to provide and contribute to the building of protective factors which maximize the accessibility to and use of sources of support. Accordingly, independent of the fact that all humans are vulnerable, for some who experience a disproportionate share of risks and challenges given particularly constructed social conditions (e.g., African American males), the mechanisms which promote the obtainment of good outcomes as expressed resiliency are frequently under-examined either conceptually or theoretically.

This chapter explores the parental experiences of 21 mothers of young and/or adult children who have been diagnosed with developmental disabilities (DD). Specific attention is paid to mothers’ reflections on marginalization, stress, and resiliency. Intersectionality of marginalization was explored with a select number of participants who identified with minority racial groups, with the LGBTQ community, and/or as a single or young mother. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the constant comparative method. Eighteen mothers reported experiencing elevated levels of stress specifically related to challenges associated with DD; the need for greater investments of time and money was emphasized. However, nearly every participant highlighted stories of resilience and acclimation to these challenges associated with raising a child with DD. Thirteen mothers overtly discussed experiences of discrimination and marginalization. Some of these scenarios included being stared at or criticized in public, being excluded from social events, and facing discrimination within school settings. Select participants from marginalized backgrounds (being as a young parent, or as Black, single, lesbian, bisexual, and/or transgender) provided insight into how layers of marginalization negatively impacted their parental experiences. These personal accounts provide additional evidence that mothers of children with DD experience courtesy stigma. In addition, they provide a holistic illustration of motherhood experiences that does not center on only negative or positive aspects. Finally, the reports of mothers who identified with multiple marginalized identities strengthen the call for additional empirical focus on intersectionality as it concerns mothers of children with DD.