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. 2025 Mar;35(1):e13052.
doi: 10.1111/jora.13052.

LGBTQ+ youth policy and mental health: Indirect effects through school experiences

Samantha A Moran  1 , Meg D Bishop  1 , Ryan J Watson  2 , Jessica N Fish  1   3
Affiliations

LGBTQ+ youth policy and mental health: Indirect effects through school experiences

Samantha A Moran et al. J Res Adolesc. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

The link between state policies and LGBTQ+ youth mental health is well-established, yet less well-understood are the mechanisms that drive these associations. We used a sample from the LGBTQ+ National Teen Survey (n = 8368) collected in 2022 to examine whether and to what degree LGBTQ+ inclusive school strategies, student perceptions of school safety, and experiences with bias-based bullying and peer victimization explain the association between state LGBTQ+ youth-focused policies and LGBTQ+ youth mental health symptomology. We observed significant indirect effects between policy and LGBTQ+ youth mental health through all four constructs, suggesting that each of these more proximal school experiences was independently implicated in this association. Findings underscore how state policies shape LGBTQ+ youth mental health symptomology via more proximal contexts and emphasize the importance of policy implementation following enactment.

Keywords: LGBTQ+ policy; LGBTQ+ youth; bias‐based bullying; mental health; peer victimization; school climate; school safety.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Path analysis model from LGBTQ+ state policies to mental health symptomology. Note: Model estimates adjusted for covariates on all endogenous variables. Coefficients are standardized beta coefficients. Outcomes are shown on the arrows. * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001.
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