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The Unmet Social and Emotional Needs of Ethnic Minority GLBT Youth: Impediments to Empowerment

and Social Action

Mark A. Biernbaum, PhD

Department of Child DevelopmentCalifornia State University, Sacramento

andLambda Community Center

citation format:Biernbaum, M.A. (March, 2005). The unmet social and emotional

needs of ethnic minority GLBT youth: Impediments to empowerment and social action. Talk presented at the 11th Annual Multicultural Education Conference, California State University, Sacramento.

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Empowering Sexual Minority Youth: Working with the Lambda Community Center's

Youth Programs

Began working at Lambda in May of 2004

Lambda Center is in the midst of both a physical and service expansion, and wanted data on what types of services their youth were most interested in having/were most in need of.

Lambda's Youth Groups serve young people from the ages of 13 to 24. Center staff estimate that approximately 150-200 different youth take part in their groups on a rotating, drop-in basis.

Two different groups meet one time per week. The groups are led by youth-facilitators, who are supported by adult facilitators from Lambda and Breaking Barriers. Topics discussed are wide ranging: from gays in the media, to self-esteem, domestic abuse, gay pride, chosen family.

Through discussions with the youth, a survey instrument, the Lambda Youth Services Survey, was born.Youth provided the majority of the items on the survey

I collected data using the Youth Services Survey at each scheduled group for a period of two weeks. Data from approximately 50 youth were obtained. Data collection is ongoing.

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Lambda Youth Services Survey: Findings, surprises, challenges

Sex of youth Frequency Percentage

Male 31 63.3Female 16 32.7Transgendered 2 4.1

Total 49 100%

Race/Ethnicity of youth Frequency Percentage

Caucasian 26 53.1Hispanic/Latino 3 6.1African-American 2 4.1Asian/Pacific Islander 5 10.2Mixed Ethnicity 12 24.5

Total 48 98%

Minority youth merged Frequency Percentage

Caucasian 26 54.2Minority 22 45.8

Total 48 100%

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Lambda Youth Services Survey:Findings, surprises, challenges (cont.)

Age of youth Average Minimum Maximum17.4 13 23

Service Needs by Gender

Full Sample Women Men

Recreational 1.19 1.07 1.22Educational 1.33 1.16 1.45Instrumental 1.55 1.63 1.52Health 1.50 1.53 1.48*Note: Transgendered youth indicated maximum needs in

all categories

Service Needs by Race/Ethnicity Merged

Full Sample Caucasian Minority

Recreational 1.19 1.21 1.17Educational 1.33 1.27 1.38Instrumental 1.55 1.57 1.52

Health 1.50 1.38 1.65

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Reflecting on the Data

1. All youth wanted the Center to provide more instrumentally

2. Both Female and Male youth endorsed needs for Health services, but Recreational and Educationalservices seemed somewhat more essential to Male youth.

3. Trangendered youth endorsed maximum needs in all service categories, making them the most at-risk of these demographic groups.

4. Ethnic/Minority GLBT youth were the demographic group most concerned with psychosocial health and support services - significantly more so than their Caucasian peers.

These youths most basic needs centered on enhancement of their mental and emotional well-being

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Mental and Emotional Well-Being: Necessities for Engagement, Empowerment, and Social Action

Compromised mental and emotional well-beingdifficulties in identity development; integration of multiple identities, low self-esteem/self-efficacy, mental illness, social disconnectedness, external struggles occupy all attention

Compromised ability to engagelack of achievement motivation; distractedness- inability to focus; minimal effort expended; lack of personal investment in school, work, world, future, relationships -- life

Compromised receptivity to empowerment disconnect between learning and application; critical pedagogy is applied without true connection to self-enhancement

Diminished likelihood of social action

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Biernbaum's Social-Emotional Learning Model (SEL Model) of Youth Empowerment

This model utilizes the basics of Social-Emotional Learning toengage students in critical pedagogy via a learner-centeredapproach in order to produce student empowerment and the

potential for social action

Step 1:Meeting studentsocial-emotional

needs

Results:1. Trust in instructor2. Sense of being recognized as unique3. Group/Class cohesion and sense of belongingness4. Increased ability to face personal challenges

Step 2:Finding student voices

through criticalpedagogy combinedwith self-reflection

Results:1. Students learn to use course content to self-reflect with encouragement of instructor and group/class2. Students learn to use critical pedagogy to analyze their world

Step 3:Empowering

student confidencein their voices and

their right tocritically examine

their world

Results:1. Critical analysis continues to empower student self-discovery2. Increased student confidence leads to confidence and social action

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Why is the SEL model of youth empowerment moredevelopmentally-sensitive?

The teen and young adult years are crucial for strong identity development

A strong sense of confidence in their identity is essential for the engaged application of critical pedagogy

Many students enter our classrooms with a compromised sense of self and/or with challenges to forming a strong and integrated personal identity

Students who must integrate a racial/ethnic identity into their personal identity face additional challenges. These challenges are increased as students add other aspects of identity, such as gender identity and sexual orientation, to their personal identity

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Instructors must move each student, via a learner-centered approach, towards the integration of a strong personal identity. Only those students witha strong core identity can experience empowerment

Why is Learner-Centered instruction/exploration so vital in this process?

Learner-centered principles view both learning and motivation as natural processes that work best when theinstructional context supports individual student needs, strengths, prior experiences, and interests

Learner-centered writing assignment series

1. Diagnostic assignment: Utilize Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory to analyze a the life of Rosalee Wright, featured in a Frontline episode called The Confessions of Rosalee Allows instructor to gauge each student's readiness to

engage in critical thinking and analysis

2. Self-reflection integrated with course content: Students generate three possible topics for final paper in which they analyze important aspect of self, life, or past using course content.

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Students begin to utilize course content to analyze areas ofconcern/difficult/confusion in their own lives, providing link between self-development and topical learning

Instructor begins written dialog with each student about each of their potential ideas, providing individualized instruction and support

3. Information gathering: After choosing a topic, studentsgather information on this topic from multiple sources in order to begin to see multiple perspectives Enables students to view their personal concerns through

multiple lenses, and allows them to critique these lenses Instructor assists student in starting to integrate personal

reflections with different points of view in a critical and self-reflective fashion

4. Designing and conducting interview: Students choose another individual in their lives who they believe may have a unique perspective on their topic. They design and administer open-ended interviews. Promotes student interpersonal communication on topic of

personal interest Exposes student to alternative personal viewpoint on topic

Exposes students to an important research method in the social sciences

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5. Final paper--Triangulation: Students integrate all of the above information into a final paper with reflective/critical format:

AbstractPersonal ReflectionsInformation gathered and Additional personal

reflectionsInterview information and Additional personal

reflectionsConclusion/Triangulation: Students are asked to explain

how their views on their topic have changed as a result of this exploration.

Conclusions

Teaching critical pedagogy alone does not insure Empowerment

Attention to the psychosocial and developmental needs of youth is essential; Impediments here impede learning; mental well-being is a necessity for optimal youth engagement

A focus on social-emotional learning increases student engagement and motivation

Critical pedagogy and active self-reflection can be fruitfully combined to produce engagement and empowerment