BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Transgender adolescents experience disproportionately high rates of dating violence and peer victimization. However, research has relied on small samples of transgender youth and has not captured victimization experiences of gender-expansive youth (who do not identify as male, female, or transgender). In the current study, we address these limitations, comparing victimization by gender. METHODS: We examined a subsample of 4464 male, female, transgender, and gender-expansive youth (1116 per group) from the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey who were frequency matched on grade, race, geographic region, and free or reduced lunch status. Prevalence of self-reported verbal, physical, and cyber peer victimization and physical and psychological dating violence was calculated. Adjusted prevalence ratios were obtained by using log-binomial regression. RESULTS: The highest rates across all forms of victimization were reported among transgender (15.6%–51.6%) and gender-expansive (13.2%–41.4%) youth. Transgender youth had a 2.09 to 2.96 times higher frequency of victimization than male youth and a 1.34 to 2.65 times higher frequency of victimization than female youth. Transgender youth also had higher frequencies of specific forms of victimization than gender-expansive youth. Gender-expansive youth had a 1.83 to 2.61 times higher frequency of victimization than male youth and 1.18 to 2.35 times higher frequencies of most forms of victimization than female youth. CONCLUSIONS: Disparities in dating violence and peer victimization rates exist among transgender and gender-expansive adolescents compared with male and female youth. The distinct experiences of transgender and gender-expansive youth should be considered in school policies and violence prevention programs.

The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on adolescents’ mental health and social interactions; however, little is known about cyber-victimization and mental health concerns from before to during the pandemic. The current study addressed this gap, while also examining how social media use and disagreements with friends during the pandemic were associated with cyber-victimization and mental health outcomes. Participants included 272 youth in the U.S. (56% female; 32% White), surveyed in fall 2019 ( M age = 11.75, SD = 0.68) and spring 2021 ( M age = 13.11, SD = 0.75). Adolescents reported increases in mental health symptoms and decreases in cyber-victimization. Experiencing more cyber-victimization before the pandemic was associated with significant increases in anxiety, depression, and social stress. The results suggest bolstering violence prevention programming in schools to reduce the likelihood of cyber-victimization and associated mental health outcomes.

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In addition to traditionally assessed abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include adversities like racial discrimination, community violence, and bullying. Prior research established associations between the original ACEs and substance use, but few used Latent Class Analysis (LCA) to examine patterns of ACEs. Examining patterns of ACEs may yield additional insights beyond cumulative risk studies focusing only on the number of different ACEs experiences. Therefore, we identified associations between latent classes of ACEs and cannabis use. Studies on ACES rarely examine cannabis use outcomes, which is important as cannabis remains one of the most commonly used substances and is associated with negative effects on health. Yet it is still unclear how ACEs influence cannabis use. Participants were adults in Illinois (n = 712) recruited through Qualtrics’ online quota-sampling method. They completed measures of 14 ACEs, past 30-day and lifetime cannabis use, medical cannabis use (DFACQ) and probable cannabis use disorders (CUDIT-R-SF). Latent class analyses were performed using ACEs. We identified four classes, labeled: Low Adversity, Interpersonal Harm, Interpersonal Abuse and Harm, and High Adversity. The largest effect sizes (p<.05) were observed for those in the High Adversity class, who had elevated risks for lifetime (OR =6.2), 30-day (OR = 5.05), and medicinal cannabis use (OR = 17.9) relative to those in the Low Adversity class. Those in the Interpersonal Abuse and Harm and Interpersonal Harm classes also had increased odds (p<.05) for lifetime (OR =2.44/OR=2.82), 30-day (OR = 4.88/OR= 2.53), and medicinal cannabis use (OR = 2.59/OR =1.67(ns)) relative to those in the Low Adversity class. However, no class with elevated ACEs had higher odds for CUD relative to the Low Adversity class. Additional research could further disentangle these findings using extensive measures of CUD. Additionally, as participants in the High Adversity class had higher odds of medicinal cannabis use, future research could carefully study their consumption patterns.