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Evidence-based interventions that increase social support have the potential to improve the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Hatch Youth is a group-level intervention that provides services four nights a week to LGBTQ youth between 13 and 20 years of age. Each Hatch Youth meeting is organized into three 1-hour sections: unstructured social time, consciousness-raising (education), and a youth-led peer support group. Youth attending a Hatch Youth meeting between March and June 2014 (N = 108) completed a cross-sectional survey. Covariate adjusted regression models were used to examine the association between attendance, perceived social support, depressive symptomology, self-esteem, and coping ability. Compared to those who attended Hatch Youth for less than 1 month, participants who attended 1 to 6 months or more than 6 months reported higher social support (β 1-6mo. = 0.57 [0.07, 1.07]; β 6+mo. = 0.44, 95% confidence interval [CI; 0.14, 0.75], respectively). Increased social support was associated with decreased depressive symptomology (β = -4.84, 95% CI [-6.56, -3.12]), increased self-esteem (β = 0.72, 95% CI [0.38, 1.06]), and improved coping ability (β = 1.00, 95% CI [0.66, 1.35]). Hatch Youth is a promising intervention that has the potential to improve the mental health and reduce risk behavior of LGBTQ youth.

Limited research has examined the social network types of older SGM women and gender non-binary adults. To better understand their social network types, 37 semi-structured interviews were conducted with SGM women and gender non-binary adults, ages ranged from 50 to 84 years old. Five previously identified social network types were examined: diverse, diverse/no children, friend-centered/restricted, immediate family-focused, and fully restricted. Participants were grouped based on their current social network and common network themes were identified. Results offer insights that can help identify individual characteristics of those in each network to develop interventions to increase social resources and reduce social isolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]