accepting attitudes toward LGBTQ people, especially youth, are strongly associated with poor mental health outcomes via increased internalized, anticipated, and enacted stigma,” states Dr. Gattamorta. “Support for this important research will enable us to diversify and expand our ongoing Miami-Dade study, intensify recruitment efforts, and increase our sample size across Florida.” The researchers are aware of their investigation’s timely nature and the need to share major ndings as widely and rapidly as possible. “This effort will provide key stakeholders and policymakers with the information needed to protect the well-being of LGBTQ parent, teachers, and students in Florida,” says Dr. Gattamorta. “Our ndings could arm those who wish to repeal PREA with evidence for its ill effects while providing legislatures considering their own versions of PREA with the ability to make more evidence- based policy decisions.” Studying the impact of laws like PREA is new to Dr. Gattamorta, but remains consistent with her focus on LGBTQ health. Early in her career, she discovered that nobody else was looking into mental health issues affecting Hispanic LGBTQ youth in particular. “I continued to do a lot of work around families and acceptance in that population,” she says. Recently that included a pilot study funded by the Center for Latino Health Research Opportunities (CLaRO), examining the feasibility and acceptability of the Family Acceptance Project, a behavioral health intervention for LGBT youth, among Hispanic families in South Florida. Meanwhile, Dr. Gattamorta is encouraged and hopeful that more organizations are expressing interest in supporting research surrounding PREA. “This is on people’s radar, and they are willing to support this work,” she says. “They see the need and value that this kind of investigation brings to the community.” Editor’s note: As of press time, Florida’s Education Department had extended the ban through grade 12.
Dr. Gattamorta
parents, and teachers,” says Dr. Gattamorta. “The negative implications of PREA are likely to disproportionately affect rural, conservative, and minority communities.” Dr. Gattamorta, an expert in test development, statistics, and psychometrics with an advanced degree in school psychology, has devoted her academic career to understanding mental and behavioral health disparities among diverse LGBTQ youth, with the aim of advancing knowledge about the conditions needed to increase acceptance and reduce rejection for this vulnerable population. Her co-researcher on the grant is nurse scientist Nicholas Metheny, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.N., an assistant professor at SONHS who has completed several studies examining the impact of LGBT-related policy change, such as marriage equality, on the physical and mental health of LGBT people in the U.S. and United Kingdom. Rounding out the research team are Maite Mena, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist and UM research assistant professor with extensive experience on implementing and evaluating programs for minority populations who experience health disparities, and SONHS Ph.D. candidate Roberto Roman Laporte. Equality Florida serves as the team’s primary community partner at the state level. “The impact of regressive LGBTQ-related legislation is poorly understood, but Minority Stress Theory posits that less-
the research team a $100,000 grant in January to expand its county investigation of PREA’s perceived impact on the LGBTQ community across Florida. This new statewide study will yield quantitative data from the 2023-2024 school year. “Our team will examine impacts of PREA on mental health, stigma, safety, and curricular changes in Florida public schools as perceived by public high school students, as well as LGBTQ- identi ed public school teachers and parents of children in any grade,” says Karina Gattamorta, Ph.D., Ed.S., the grant’s principal investigator and a SONHS research associate professor. “We hypothesize that PREA will have signi cant effects on the levels of minority stress perceived by all three groups and will negatively impact their mental health. We also expect to nd that teachers will feel less comfortable covering LGBTQ-related content relevant to their curricula and that parents will feel signi cantly less comfortable disclosing their identity to students’ teachers.” Extending the study to the entire state is important, note the researchers, because it will allow better understanding of how the law plays out in the state’s varied demographic regions. “Our study will be instrumental in building new knowledge about the ways in which anti-LGBTQ policy harms LGBTQ-identi ed students,
Studying ‘Don’t Say Gay’ and Mental Health A six-figure grant is helping SONHS researchers launch a groundbreaking investigation into the psychological implications of Florida’s polarizing new public school policy. By Robin Shear
Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education Act (PREA) has raised national attention due to its language prohibiting classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade and requiring “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate” instruction on these topics for students in all grades. Since PREA passed last March, there has been widespread, heated debate about the controversial policy, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics. Broadly speaking, opponents of PREA (HB 1557) insist the policy negatively impacts lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ) families and educators. Proponents point to the Constitutionally protected parent- child relationship, arguing that the
measure is meant to ensure parents can determine when and how to introduce LGBTQ topics to their children. Amid escalating political rhetoric, a team of researchers from the School of Nursing and Health Studies (SONHS) quietly and without fanfare set out on a mission to collect evidence-based data that might contribute actionable facts and ndings about the mental health implications of this closely watched, precedent-setting law. Other states had proposed similar bills, but Florida’s was the rst enacted, making the 2022-2023 school year the rst time the impact of such a policy on LGBTQ-identi ed parents, students, and
teachers could be charted anywhere in the United States.
Armed with a proposal funded by the University of Miami’s U-LINK (Laboratory for Integrative Knowledge) research program, a SONHS-led research team began studying PREA’s effects on LGBTQ students, parents, and teachers in Miami-Dade County Public Schools almost immediately, aided by community partner Safe Schools South Florida and Our Fund, an organization devoted to improving the lives of LGBTQ people in South Florida. Based on that work, a national foundation that promotes sexual orientation and gender identity equality awarded
26 heart beat | SPRING 2023
SPRING 2023 | heart beat 27
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker