Arjan van der Star

Arjan van der Star
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Arjan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Arjan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
San Diego State University | SDSU · Department of Psychology

PhD
Social Epidemiologist - LGBTQ+ Mental Health

About

36
Publications
4,454
Reads
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319
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Arjan van der Star, Ph.D., M.Sc. (he/him) is a social epidemiologist and public health researcher interested in sexual and gender minority mental health. Dr. Van der Star’s research focuses on the complex mechanisms underlying sexual orientation and gender identity-based mental health disparities, examined through a multilevel socioecological lens to further advance theory on the causes of adverse mental health and to inform the development of effective policies and affirming psychotherapy.
Additional affiliations
September 2016 - September 2020
Karolinska Institutet
Position
  • PhD Candidate
March 2018 - February 2019
Yale University
Position
  • Fellow
September 2016 - October 2020
Karolinska Institutet
Position
  • PhD Student
Education
September 2016 - September 2020
Karolinska Institutet
Field of study
  • Public Health
September 2011 - September 2013
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Field of study
  • Health Economics, Policy & Law
September 2008 - September 2011
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Field of study
  • Health Policy & Management

Publications

Publications (36)
Article
Full-text available
Sexual minorities (e.g., lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals) are at higher risk for depression than heterosexual individuals. Lack of openness about one's sexual orientation is a suggested source of these disparities, but it has been linked to both positive and negative mental health. Few population-based studies have explored the association b...
Thesis
Full-text available
Background: Compared to heterosexual individuals, sexual minorities (e.g., those identifying as gay, lesbian, or bisexual) are at higher risk of several mental health problems, including suicidality, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety. Research has attributed much of these elevated risks to unique and chronic stress experiences, so-called min...
Article
Full-text available
Country-level structural stigma, defined as prejudiced population attitudes and discriminatory legislation and policies, has been suggested to compromise the wellbeing of sexual minority adults. This study explores whether and how structural stigma might be associated with sexual minorities' school-based and adulthood experiences of victimization a...
Article
Full-text available
Background Increasing evidence suggests that structural stigma (e.g. discriminatory laws, policies and population attitudes) can give rise to minority stress reactions (i.e. rejection sensitivity, internalized homophobia and identity concealment) to compromise sexual minorities’ mental health. Yet, many sexual minorities encounter divergent structu...
Article
Full-text available
Research in public health and psychology has identified sexual minority stigma-related risk factors that contribute to sexual orientation-based health disparities across settings and societies worldwide. Existing scholarship, however, has predominantly focused on these factors as independent, stand-alone risk factors, neglecting their interconnecte...
Article
Background The current study aimed to longitudinally examine whether intrapersonal stigma (i.e., internalized stigma; identity concealment) mediates the associations between interpersonal stigma (i.e., adulthood and childhood victimization; everyday discrimination; perceived external stigma) and mental health outcomes among sexual minority adults,...
Article
Background Structural stigma, including discriminatory laws, inequitable policies, and negative attitudes, has been conceptualized as the general societal climate and institutional conditions that shape sexual minorities’ lives, mental, and physical health. While multidimensional indices have been used globally, U.S.-based studies have largely reli...
Article
Full-text available
LGBTQI+ individuals have existed throughout human history and across cultures. Natural variations of sexual orientation and gender identity exist regardless of enacted laws and policies. So-called sodomy laws have existed in many countries around the world at different moments in distant and recent history, focusing on criminalising consensual sexu...
Article
Full-text available
Anti-gender movements, which have gained significant momentum in recent years, challenge the validity and existence of gender as a concept, and in turn, gender identity. Anti-gender campaigners are varied, ranging from conservative political actors, religious leaders and institutions, to “gender critical” feminists but they are united in one respec...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sexual minorities, including children, are at increased risk for adverse mental health outcomes compared to their heterosexual peers, but longitudinal studies are needed to determine the factors that explain the associations between sexual minority identification and adverse mental health outcomes during this developmental period. We exa...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Transgender individuals are at heightened risk for self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs). Evidence suggests that middle childhood-aged transgender individuals experience elevated rates of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and passive suicidal ideation (SI), compared to cisgender children. Little is known about gender identity-b...
Article
Full-text available
Background Compared with peers, young sexual and gender minorities (SGM) are at a four to seven-fold increased risk of attempting suicide. Prior epidemiological studies, mainly focusing on monomorbid inequalities and without conducting diagnostic clinical interviews, have been unable to report robust data on psychiatric comorbidities among those wh...
Article
Full-text available
Research from across the globe has consistently shown that young sexual and gender minority individuals (e.g., those identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender [LGBT+]) are at a higher risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors when compared to heterosexual youth, including during early childhood and later adol...
Article
Full-text available
Background Sexual minority children are at increased risk for psychopathology compared to their heterosexual peers, but longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether sexual minority identification precedes (rather than co-occurs with) mental health disparities and what may drive these disparities during childhood. The current study examined...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Background Across Western countries, young LGBTQ+ individuals are at a four to seven-fold increased risk of attempting suicide, compared to the general public. Despite these substantial health disparities, no known empirically supported suicide prevention programs exist for this highly vulnerable population. Patient navigation (PN), as an intervent...
Article
Full-text available
Intersex newborns, children and adolescents frequently are subjected to not clinically necessary surgeries and other non-consensual treatments. According to the UN Factsheet Intersex, “Intersex people are born with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodie...
Article
Full-text available
As the current COVID-19 crisis reminds us, public mental health may still lack full recognition in public health, despite numerous European public health agendas that underline the importance of mental health within the public health domain. We examine the position of public mental health in European public health and how it is represented in curre...
Article
Background Increasing evidence suggests that structural stigma (e.g., discriminatory laws, policies, and population attitudes) can give rise to minority stress reactions (i.e., rejection sensitivity, internalized homophobia, and identity concealment) to compromise sexual minorities' mental health. Yet, many sexual minorities encounter divergent str...
Conference Paper
Over the past decades, public health research has started to examine the higher risk of mental health concerns among sexual minorities (e.g., lesbian, gay, or bisexual individuals) when compared with heterosexual individuals. Until more recently, most of this research has been coming from North America and focused on theories of stigma and minority...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Despite increasing legal protections and supportive attitudes toward sexual minorities (e.g., those who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual [LGB]) in recent decades, suicidality remains more common among this population than among heterosexuals. While barriers to societal integration—or a lack of meaning, purpose, and belonging as derive...
Conference Paper
LGBTQI+ individuals and the healthcare system. Arjan will present a variety of issues that LGBTQI+ individuals may face when trying to access healthcare or during interactions with healthcare professionals. The group will discuss how and which soft skills would tie into these issues and will brainstorm about ideas for strategies tackling LGBTQI+ di...
Article
Background Despite increasing legal protections and supportive attitudes toward sexual minorities (e.g., those who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual [LGB]) in recent decades, suicidality remains more common among this population than among heterosexuals. While barriers to societal integration have been widely theorized as determinants of suici...
Article
Background Sexual minorities (e.g., lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals) are at higher risk for depression than heterosexual individuals. Lack of openness about one’s sexual orientation is a suggested source of these disparities, but it has been linked to both positive and negative mental health. Few population-based studies have explored the as...
Article
The time has arrived for the health of sexual and gender minority (i.e. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) Europeans to be assessed. It has become increasingly clear that this likely-sizeable proportion of the European population experiences frequent discrimination, harassment and victimization; often conceals its identity and behavior from f...
Article
Reduction of health disparities is a fundamental goal of public health research and practice. During the past several years, public health policy and research have begun to address the substantial health disparities that exist between sexual minority [lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB)] and gender minority [transgender (T)], as compared with heterosex...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Awareness of health disparities based on sexual orientation has increased in the past decades, and many official public health agencies throughout Europe call for programs addressing the specific needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals. However, the acceptance of LGB individuals varies significantly in different countries,...
Chapter
During the past centuries, various techniques have been described to prevent patients from assuming the supine position such as an upright sleep posture, positional alarms, verbal instructions, tennis balls, vests, “shark fins” or special pillows. Different inventions have been patented over the years. Scientific research shows that positional ther...
Chapter
This chapter evaluates the long-term effects of using the Sleep Position Trainer (SPT) in position-dependent OSA (POSA) patients over a period of 6 months, in terms of effectiveness, compliance, and subjective sleep parameters. In a large cohort of 106 adult POSA patients, the percentage of supine sleep time decreased rapidly during the training ph...
Article
Full-text available
This European public health news is looking at the future, and foremost at putting the health of our citizens first. Public health needs to move forward and the way forward includes support, collaboration, integration and an investment in the future public health professionals. Ricciardi emphasizes both the need for collaboration and the need for s...

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