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from NARTH - APA Highlights
LGBT Poster Session Themes at the
APA Convention, 2009
APA Poster Sessions offer a window into areas of research interests and concerns of particular topics or issues. More often than not APA Divisions sponsor presentations or poster sessions that reflect division interests. Division 44, Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues sponsors workshops, papers, symposia as well as poster sessions.
The LGBT Poster Session for 2009 in Toronto was sponsored by Division 44 and offered 37 poster sessions. Although each was unique, a cursory examination of the 2009 posters yielded themes which might allow those interested in LGBT issues to get a glimpse of where current research interests seem to be.
From the 37 posters, the following general categories seem to emerge:
- 13 posters focused on themes of "coming out" with the focus on factors and resources that seem to either influence or be helpful to this process.
- 12 posters focused on themes of violence, bullying and harassment and associated difficulties.
- 2 posters focused on aging
- 2 posters focused on methamphetamine use in gay men
- 2 posters focused on parenting issues
- 1 poster focused on surgical decision-making.
- 1 poster focused on congenital adrenal hyperplasia
- 1 poster session focused on barebacking
- 1 poster session focused on assimilative demands for lesbians from a legalistic view.
- 1 poster session focused on sexual identity issues in Korean gay men
- 1 poster session same-sex - issues in heterosexually-identified young adults.
While it is not the intent to summarize each of the poster sessions on LGBT topics, it might be interesting to briefly review a few of the posters in the first two categories and to perhaps highlight some of the more interesting unique posters in the other categories.
Coming Out
In an interesting poster authored by Shepler and Miller, the researchers wondered whether or not coming out was always the best option. Titled "Considerations for Counseling GLB Clients: Is Coming Out Always Best," the researchers identified the pressures exerted by both the GLB community as well as among practitioners for GLB individuals to publically declare their sexual orientations. While noting some research support for publically encouraging such disclosures, the authors acknowledge that there may be some benefits for some GLB not to publically making such disclosures. For example, the authors do not view the loss of family and friends, loss of financial support as among the benefits of disclosure. Focusing on ethicality, the authors concluded: "Alternatively, practitioners can provide more ethical services by understanding that for some clients, the cost of coming out far outweighs the benefits."
This poster seems somewhat atypical from many of the other posters in this category---the notion that psychological care needs to be patient-driven and that patient choice or patient-self-determination needs to be center-stage. Though not mentioned by the authors, this consideration would seem critical for adolescents since most attractions, including sexual attractions, appear fluid for this group. And the labeling associated with coming out maybe as premature as the coming out. Some research suggests that premature labeling may be associated with mental health problems such as suicidality as well as an increase in sexual activities.
Another poster in this category focused on spiritual needs and HIV/AIDS Prevention. Authored by Regent University professionals, Trista Carr and LaTrelle Jackson, the poster was titled, "A Spiritual Needs Assessment and HIV/AIDS Prevention." The recommendations from this study included the importance of training staff to understand the importance of spiritual belief systems and supportive client's valuative frameworks, including a religious, spiritual or belief assessment as a part of the general assessment to determine whether or not values or faith practices could be used in prevention or for support and including a value-added segment to the existing curricula for these groups.
This research was conducted in a local HIV/AIDS community center in Southern Virginia. The researchers concluded that most of the persons served by the center considered their religious/spiritual needs to be important in their lives. The authors concluded that addressing spiritual/religious issues was not a violation of government guidelines as long as all worldviews were considered. The researchers found that "LGBT persons of faith can utilize their valuative systems to help lower their risks of contracting the virus."
Interesting enough, this poster session shared a commonality with the first poster session summarized: patient-self determination and patient worldviews including religious/spiritual worldviews, should be both respected and explored. Indeed perhaps it should be considered an ethical violation when therapists do NOT respect patient wishes or patient worldviews.
Violence, Bullying and Harassment
"Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Differences in Indirect Aggression" was a poster authored by Olivia Leeker and Carrie Winterowd. The authors explored sexual orientation, gender identity and sex group differences in the use of indirect aggression among college men and women. Though the researchers found no sexual orientation group differences, no sex group differences and no gender identity group differences among the sample studied, they did report "Expressive" gender identity group difference in indirect aggression. For example, college students who reported lower levels of expressiveness were more likely to engage in indirect aggressiveness than were college students who reported higher levels of expressiveness. Translated this seems to indicate that college students who were less traditionally feminine, not as affectively proned such as being emotional or understanding were more likely to engage in indirect aggression tactics than those who were not otherwise predisposed. The authors concluded that if psychologists helped both gay and straight students become more emotionally expressive that it may have the effect of reducing indirect aggression.
Certainly this was an interesting study which found no differences between men and women or homosexuals or heterosexuals in terms of indirect aggression. Rather, indirect aggression was associated with expressiveness--learning to express emotions seems to reduce indirect aggression.
Intimate partner violence has been subject to much research over the past decade. The poster, "A Comparison of Intimate Partner Violence Intervention Recommendations by Psychologists for Same-Sex and Heterosexual Couples," was based on the dissertation of Kelly A. Blasko which was supervised by Kathleen Bieschke. Basically an exploratory study, the author compared intervention recommendations and outcome recommendations for heterosexual and homosexual couples experiencing two types of intimate partner violence. The author concluded that safety planning was the first intervention in treatment regardless of couple type. However, the authors concluded that psychologists assumed different treatment recommendations for heterosexual couples than for homosexual couples. The violence in heterosexual couples was perceived to worsen or less likely to lessen and the patient more likely to suffer when compared to homosexual couples. The author offered a couple of differing hypotheses suggesting that heterosexual couples are assessed differently where men are viewed as the aggressors in heterosexual relationships. Another hypothesis offered is that homosexual partners are more apt to be perceived as the same size physically compared to perceived male/female differential sizes in heterosexual relationships.
The poster certainly brings attention to domestic violence in relationships but because of the exploratory nature of the study, little can be concluded except that violence exists, the reasons for which are not clear, and the solutions are equally as unclear.
Singular Poster Sessions Stand Out
Two poster sessions seem to stand out because of their uniqueness: one focused on barebacking behaviors and barebacking identity; and the other same-sex sexuality in heterosexually identified young adults.
Offfered by Buffie Longmire-Avital et al., "Exploring Relations among Barebacking Behaviors and Barebacking Identity," the authors offered an identity status to "barebackers." The authors identify barebackers as those men who intentionally seek to have unprotected anal sex with men of various HIV statuses. The authors studied Black and Latino Men who had Sex with Men. The authors concluded:
- HIV negative men who reported barebacking as a bottom with either an HIV-Negative or unknown status person was significantly more likely to identify as a barebacker. This was not the case with barebacking behavior and HIV-Positive men.
- A significant proportion of the variance in barebacking identity was attributed to being HIV positive
- "HIV positive men who barebacked as a top with either a positive or unknown partner increased their odds of identifying as a barebacker."
It is interesting to note the authors attempt to construct an identity for men who engage in what amounts to "bug chasing." To some, this may appear to be an attempt to "normalize" a behavior-based identity. One may legitimately wonder which comes first the behavior or the identity. That is, do barebackers engage in barebacking behaviors because they are barebackers or does barebacking behaviors define barebakers?
Finally, "Correlates of Same-Sex Sexuality in Heterosexually Identified Young Adults" by Vrangalova and Savin-Williams offered perhaps the most interesting poster which seems consistent with some of Savin-Williams most recent research findings: labels may not so easily fit adolescent sexuality--sexual orientation is more complex, more multi-faceted.
Vrangalova and Savin-Williams offer a basic conclusion: "Heterosexual identification does not preclude presence of at least some same-sex attraction, fantasy, and less so, same-sex partners."
While this conclusion seems to be consistent with some of the "fluidity" literature, one wonders if the opposite holds true. That is, does homosexual identification preclude the presence of at least some opposite-sex attraction, fantasy, and less so, opposite-sex partners?
In summary, the 2009 APA Poster Session Sponsored by Division 44 offered a range of posters, most of which either focused on the coming out process or violence and aggression. Novel poster sessions addressed barebacking identity and same-sex attraction and fantasy in heterosexually identified young adults.
Updated: 24 September 2009
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