Biography

Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Florida, is the recipient of the APA Lifetime Achievement Award in Prevention Science and the 2016 APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, and is a Fellow of APS, APA, and AERA. She earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Indiana University in 1997. She has authored over 180 peer- reviewed articles, six edited books, and 70 chapters on bullying, homophobic teasing, sexual harassment, dating violence, and gang violence. Her research focuses on translating empirical findings into prevention and intervention programming and she has secured over nine million dollars of external funding. She authored a 2011 White House Brief on bullying among LGBTQ youth and attended the White House Conference in 2011. She was a consultant to the National Institutes of Health Pathways to Prevention Initiative to address bullying and youth suicide.

2-001 - Peer Victimization, Dating Violence, & Mental Health Issues among Sexual & Gender Minority Youth: Building Protective Schools and Communities

Session Type: Invited Keynote Address

Integrative Statement

Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) and gender minority populations often experience elevated levels of peer victimization, truancy, depression, and suicidal behaviors than their straight-identified peers (Espelage, Birkett, Aragon, & Koenig, 2008; Robinson & Espelage, 2012). Further, recent studies suggest that SMY have greater odds of physical dating violence victimization than non-SMGYs (Espelage et al., 2016; Lou, Stone, & Tharp, 2014; Martin-Story, 2015). In this plenary session, research on risk and protective factors associated with victimization among SMGY will be discussed. School-based interventions will be reviewed that are showing progress in reducing victimization among these youth, including interventions that have focused on policies, professional development, building trusting relationships, technology-based efforts, and school climate improvement approaches. Priorities for future research will be presented.

Sub Unit

• SRA Invited Program and Special Events

Chair

• Mitchell J. Prinstein, UNC-Chapel Hill

Speaker

• Dorothy L. Espelage, University of Florida