Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community are more at-risk for negative mental and physical health outcomes compared to heterosexual individuals. Particularly, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) are at-risk for health issues such as depression, anxiety, and sexually transmitted infections (e.g., HIV). Studies have shown that these risks worsen in multiple-minority populations, such as racial/ethnic minorities who identify as LGBT. Another example of a multiple-minority population are LGBT immigrants, who are relatively understudied. This study will focus on the unique sociocultural risk factors (e.g., discriminatory laws in home country, religious-based sexual stigma) experienced by MSM immigrants from the Middle East, and whether their experiences place them at higher risk for contracting HIV and having negative mental health than Canadian-born MSM. I hypothesize that Middle Eastern MSM immigrants will demonstrate unique risk factors that place them at higher risk for contracting HIV and experiencing mental health issues than Canadian-born MSM. I will use online self-report surveys to collect data on demographics (e.g., age, birth country, number of years living in Canada), sociocultural experiences (e.g., experiences of racism, discriminatory laws in birth country, English-language fluency), and high-risk sexual behaviours (e.g., frequency of condom use). The proposed research will provide insight on the unique experiences of Middle Eastern MSM immigrants, which will allow us to direct culturally competent programs to help alleviate their mental and physical health risks. I will integrate my accumulated knowledge and past experiences with LGBT and immigrant-populations while performing this research.