Yama Ya-Wen Chang

Dartmouth College · Quantitative Biomedical Science

In the United States, the experience of minority stress among LGBTQ+ youth varies across regions with high and low levels of stigma (e.g., laws, policies and cultural norms that limit the lives of individuals with stigmatized identities). Some evidence suggests that stigma can undermine response to individual-level psychosocial interventions among...

Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people in the U.S. navigate significant employment and economic inequities. Gaps in knowledge about their workplace experiences limit our broader understanding of how social inequality is interactionally constructed through employment contexts. We conducted and analyzed interviews with 26 TNB young adults. Routine hi...

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents have high risk for suicidal behavior (SB), and structural homophobia could contribute to inequities in suicidal ideation and behavior among SGM youth. Limited prior research has examined how comprehensive indicators of structural homophobia are related to suicidal ideation and behavior among SGM adolesce...

Objective. Leveraging data from a previously-conducted randomized trial, we examined whether Project RISE— a digital single-session intervention (SSI) focused on minority stress—was associated with equal improvements in levels of internalized stigma, identity pride, hopelessness, depression, and anxiety among White, sexual minority (SM), cisgender...

LGBTQ+ youth of color (YOC) face disproportionate barriers in accessing mental healthcare. When they do gain access, many find treatments to be non-affirming. There is a need for accessible interventions tailored for these underserved communities. Project RISE is an online, single-session intervention (SSI) based on principles of affirmative CBT fo...

Introduction: The experience of minority stress among LGBTQ+ youth varies across higher- or lower-stigma regions (e.g., which include laws/policies and cultural norms that limit the lives of individuals with stigmatized identities) in the United States. In a recent trial, we found that an online, single-session minority stress intervention (Projec...

Objective: Rural teens are less likely to access care for depression than urban teens. Evidencebased digital single-session interventions (SSIs), offered via social media advertisements, may be well suited to narrowing this gap in treatment access and increasing access to support for adolescents living in rural areas. We evaluated the viability of...

Objectives: To examine the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and early and late-onset suicidal behavior among depressed older adults. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services in Pennsylvania. Participants: Our sample included 224 adults aged 50+ (M ± SD = 62.5 ± 7.4) recruited i...

Objectives: To examine the relationship between childhood traumatic experiences and early and late-onset suicidal behavior among depressed older adults.Design: Cross-sectional study.Setting: Inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services in Pennsylvania.Participants: Our sample included 224 adults aged 50+ (M±SD = 62.5±7.4) recruited into three depr...

Objective: Rural teens are less likely to access care for depression than urban teens. Evidence-based digital single-session interventions (SSIs), offered via social media advertisements, may be well-suited to narrowing this gap in treatment access and increasing rural adolescents’ access to support. We evaluated the viability of using social media...

Objective: In young and middle-aged adults, suicidal ideation is an important predictor of prospective suicide attempts, but its predictive power in late life remains unclear. In this study, we used Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) in a cohort of depressed older adults to identify distinct ideation profiles and their clinical correlates and test their...

We examined the relationship between childhood trauma experiences and age of onset of first suicide attempt using a sample of depressed older adults with and without suicidal behavior or ideation, and a comparison group of healthy non-psychiatric people.

Gender-questioning refers to an individual feeling uncertain about their gender identity. While minority stress and mental health outcomes among sexual and gender minority individuals (SGM) are gradually being studied, few research studies have focused on gender questioning youth. It is highly possible that adolescents who are struggling with their...

In this study, we examined mental health disparities among LGBTQ Asian and Pacific Islander youth on emotion dysregulation, experiential avoidance, perceived social support, and alcohol use. We used existing data from a large cross-sectional survey study in which a total of 579 college students were recruited from different sources including local...

Objective Few studies have examined the association between childhood gender role nonconformity and markers of transgender identity development. We investigated the relationship between recalled childhood gender role nonconformity and identity development among a diverse sample of transgender and gender nonbinary (TGNB) individuals living in the U...