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Development of Same-Sex Attracted Youth

  • Chapter
The Health of Sexual Minorities

Abstract

Although youthful homoeroticism has been documented by artisans, poets, and historians for thousands of years, it was not until the early 1970s that American scientists—primarily medical researchers and mental health professionals—began systematically studying a newly recognized clinical group they classified as “gay youth.” Casting doubt on earlier interpretations that adolescent same-sex encounters were experimental events that were temporary derailments from inevitable heterosexuality, they acknowledged that these youth comprised a unique grouping with their own exceptional experiences, needs, and risks. Not surprisingly, early sources of information about gay youth were comprised mostly of the adolescents who investigators could unquestionably identify and entice to participate in gay research: male prostitutes, runaways, and delinquents. Their early findings consequently highlighted the lives of specific adolescents who were, by definition, in physical, psychological, and social peril.

Manuscript based in part on Savin-Williams and Cohen (2004), Cohen and Savin-Williams (2004), and Savin-Williams (2005).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Development, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Ritch C. Savin-Williams

  2. Gannett Health Center, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Kenneth M. Cohen

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  1. Ritch C. Savin-Williams
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  2. Kenneth M. Cohen
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  1. Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Ilan H. Meyer PhD  & Mary E. Northridge PhD, MPH  & 

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Savin-Williams, R.C., Cohen, K.M. (2007). Development of Same-Sex Attracted Youth. In: Meyer, I.H., Northridge, M.E. (eds) The Health of Sexual Minorities. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-31334-4_2

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