THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
The University Daily Kansan
vol. 135 // iss. 14 Thurs. Oct. 5, 2017
SPECIAL SECTION INSIDE! ▶
Missy Minear/KANSAN Megan Paceley is an assistant professor in the School of Social Welfare who conducted a study on transgender youth in rural towns.
Study delves into transgender teens’ lives
A KU professor has spent several years interviewing transgender youth growing up in rural Midwestern communities about their support systems, access to resources and overarching experiences BRIANNA CHILDERS @Breeanuhh3 University professor Megan Paceley wanted to start an LGBT community center after she finished graduate school at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. When she realized that there was not any research on how to do so, she decided to do the research herself. The result was a study, conducted in 2014 and 2015, on how communities can be more supportive of LGBT youth.
The study was conducted in multiple towns in a Midwestern state, which Paceley couldn’t identify for confidentiality reasons, specifically rural communities with a population size of 100,000 people or fewer. The study surveyed 70 members of the transgender youth community ages 14 to 18. Paceley then conducted interviews with seven of the teenagers who indicated that they were willing to talk more about their experiences. Paceley asked about the subjects’ community,
including what it was like growing up in a small town, what the climate was like — whether it was supportive, tolerant or hostile — how they got support and if support was even available in their community. Paceley said one of the most interesting findings was that the town’s social climate mattered more than its size. “When you look at the availability of transgender specific resources, it didn’t matter how big the town was when we are looking at the smallest,” Paceley said.
She said that if a youth lived in a supportive community, then they were more likely to have access to resources that could help them with their identity compared to youth who lived in a hostile community and were less likely to have access to resources. Resources include gaystraight alliances, LGBT community centers or LGBT youth groups. “We can’t change the size of the community but we certainly can change the climate,” Paceley said. “If someone is living in a
hostile community, and they don’t have access to resources, how can we improve the climate of that community so they have more access to resources.” S. Okrey Anderson, the second author of the study and a doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Minnesota, said the results felt very familiar because of the work they had done with transgender students in the past. Anderson served as a program coordinator for an LGBT resource center in Champaign, Illinois, where Anderson re-
ceived their undergraduate degree. “I really appreciate that it’s focusing on rural kids, most of the time I feel like [gender and sexual minority] literature is pretty city-centric and focused on metro areas, and it’s good to bring attention,” Anderson said. Other results of the study concluded that while some youth talked about their town being small and hostile, they still loved their town, even if they weren’t SEE STUDY • PAGE 3
KU report: Suicidal thoughts, stress on the rise 2017 (558 people surveyed) (613 people surveyed)
%
9
suicidal thoughts
very sad
% .4 60
9% 65.
.4 % 62
%
69.9 %
2015
.2
Nearly 12 percent of University students surveyed reported they had “seriously considered” committing suicide during the previous year, the highest level since 2003, according to the University’s results in the 2017 National College Health Assessment Survey. Students also reported high levels of depression, with 70 percent saying they had been “very sad” sometime during the past 12 months, according to the survey results published this week on the Watkins Health Center website. Around 45 percent of respondents described the level of stress they experienced as “more than average” within the last 12 months, while another 15 percent rated their overall level of stress as “tremendous.” “This survey helps the health-educating staff at KU get a better understand-
ing of the student body’s health trends and gives us a basis of what education needs to be targeted toward our students,” said Jenny McKee, Watkins Health educator. “This year’s survey brought some positives, but also some alarming statistics.” The data was collected from 558 students who took the survey, which happens every two years, in April of 2017. The survey asked students for responses in nine areas including general health; disease and injury prevention; academic impacts; violence, abusive relationships and personal safety; drug and alcohol use; sexual behavior; nutrition and exercise; mental health; and sleep. Among the positive measures in the survey were those that related to alcohol use. The percent of University students that engaged in binge drinking and drunk driving. McKee said the responses about alcohol use appear to show that the Univer-
Mental Health Category
12
AUSTIN GARCIA @austin_TG15
]
A health survey conducted last spring shows KU has an above-average percent of students dealing with mental health issues
overwhelmingly stressed
Graphic by Gracie Williams/KANSAN
Information from the National College Health Assessment
sity’s efforts to educate students about alcohol have had an impact. The percentage of students surveyed who said they drank five or more drinks and drove within the last 30 days was down to 2 percent, a decline that has continued since 2006 when 18 percent of University students reported drinking five or more drinks and driving within the past 30 days. The survey also showed a continuing decline in reports of binge drinking, with 34 percent of students saying they drank five or
]
more drinks in one sitting in the last two weeks. This number is low when compared to binge drinking behaviors from previous assessments of approximately 60 percent in 2009, 54 percent in 2011, 53 percent in 2013 and 36 percent in 2015. However, while these trends are positive for the University, McKee believes mental health programing and support have taken a backseat to alcohol education. She characterized the mental health responses as “off-the-charts high.” Among the 12 percent
of students who said they had seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months, slightly more were female than male. The 2017 survey percentage was the highest in its category since the University started gathering the data in 2003. Those percentages were approximately 8 percent in 2003 and 2006, 4 percent in 2009, 5 percent in 2011, 6 percent in 2013 and 9 percent in 2015. Stress, anxiety and sadness percentages were also high. About a third of the respondents said their stress or anxiety levels af-
fected their academic performance. What McKee said she found most surprising was that 87 percent of the student respondents indicated their health as being good, very good or excellent on the 2017 assessment. “I believe a majority of students that marked that they were healthy just weren’t sick at the time, so they believed they were healthy,” McKee said. “Health is eight-dimensional. If you’re failing miserably in one dimension, then SEE STUDY • PAGE 3