Table of Contents
Notice Number:
NOT-OD-23-166
Key Dates
Release Date: August 28, 2023
First Available Due Date: September 25, 2023
Expiration Date: May 08, 2026
Related Announcements
Please refer to the table of eligible NOFOs in the IC-Specific Application and Submission Information section of this NOSI.
Issued by
National Institute on Aging (NIA) National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) National Cancer Institute (NCI) Tribal Health Research Office (THRO) All applications to this funding opportunity announcement should fall within the mission of the Institutes/Centers. The following NIH Offices may co-fund applications assigned to those Institutes/Centers. Division of Program Coordination, Planning and Strategic Initiatives, Office of Disease Prevention (ODP) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) Sexual and Gender Minority Research Office (SGMRO)
Purpose
The mission of the NIH is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability. The NIH is committed to supporting research that will increase scientific understanding of health and well-being and lead to the development of effective evidence-based strategies, interventions, and services for people of all ages and backgrounds. NIH places a high priority on research with individuals and populations at increased risk for adverse health outcomes, and especially those who have received insufficient attention from the scientific research enterprise. To this end, and in response to Executive Order 14075 on Advancing Equality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Individuals, this Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) announces an interest in research on the impact and consequences of family support and family rejection on the health and well-being of sexual and gender minority (SGM, defined for NIH purposes in NOT-OD-19-139) individuals across the life course.
Background
Recent statistics indicate that a growing percentage of the U.S. population is endorsing an SGM identity as of 2021, with much of this growth attributed to increases in LGBT identification among younger generations. In recent years, multiple relevant policies and laws have been enacted in support of LGBTQI2S+ communities and their well-being. There is growing societal awareness and acceptance of LGBTQI2S+ people. However, there remains considerable variation in attitudes toward LGBTQI2S+ persons at the local and interpersonal levels. For example, according to the Trevor Project’s 2022 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, only 37% of LGBTQ adolescents and young adults identified home as an LGBTQ-affirming space and only 32% of transgender and non-binary adolescents and young adults identified home as a gender-affirming space; this is a substantially smaller percentage than those identifying schools as affirming spaces (55% and 51%, respectively). The family is an important social unit where negative or positive attitudes may have direct, significant, and unique effects on the health of its LGBTQI2S+ members. There is evidence to suggest that family support for SGM members is associated with improved well-being and can act as a buffer against negative health outcomes. Conversely, research has shown that family rejection can be harmful to SGM people, particularly with regard to its impact on mental and behavioral health. However, more research is needed to elucidate the full extent of the influences of family support and rejection on the health and well-being of SGM individuals at different points across the life course and to account for the considerable variety of family configurations, forms of support and rejection, and experiences of SGM people from different sociodemographic and sociocultural backgrounds. Research on interventions to improve family support or mitigate the negative consequences of family rejection is also needed.
Research Objectives
The goal of this NOSI is to boost research on the impact and consequences of family rejection and family support on the health and well-being of SGM persons across the life course. Research proposed under this NOSI may include behavioral, social, clinical, implementation, basic, complementary, integrative, and any other relevant research approaches that probe the influences of family rejection, acceptance, affirmation, support, and belonging on the immediate and long-term health and health outcomes of SGM individuals at any life stage. Studies may also include prevention, intervention, and service delivery research that seeks to prevent, reduce, or treat adverse effects associated with family rejection and/or improve or maintain SGM people’s health. Potential topics regarding how family support and rejection affect health include but are not limited to:
- Impact of family rejection and/or support on long-term well-being, including physical, mental, social, and financial well-being
- Impact of family rejection and/or support on mental health and wellness, including emotional, psychological, intellectual, behavioral, and social health
- Effects of family rejection and/or support on sexual orientation and gender identity formation
- Differential experiences and effects of family rejection and/or support based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or the confluence of both (e.g., coming out and transitioning)
- Differential experiences and effects of ethnic, racial, or tribal family, family network, and/or community support and rejection based on sexual orientation, gender identity, or the confluence of both
- Differential experiences of indigenous family structures, networks, and support systems that create a sense of belonging and positive American Indian or Alaska Native SGM identities, Two-Spirit identities, and identities at the confluence of both
- Means to build, factors affecting, and health effects of coping skills and resilience
- Relationship of family support and rejection to other relevant experiences, such as adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and joy
- Ways that parents or caregivers can provide support and their impacts
- Family support as a buffer against the negative impacts of discrimination on health
- General and SGM-specific parenting or caregiving practices that promote or discourage healthy development (e.g., monitoring, communication, attachment)
- Family-specific support and rejection in health and well-being (e.g., different types of families, roles of different family members and caregivers)
- Mediators, moderators, and mechanisms by which family support and rejection exert their effects (e.g., transduction into physiological alterations, associations with specific dimensions of interpersonal interactions, role of participation in SGM events or organizations)
- Consideration of the influence of relevant concepts on health outcomes related to family support and rejection (e.g., minority stress, social safety, internalized and enacted stigma)
- Cultural, community, and other social environmental influences on support and rejection
- Intersectionality with other identities and circumstances in support and rejection
- Needs, experiences, and outcomes of specific subgroups under the SGM umbrella with regard to family support and rejection, e.g., Two-Spirit persons, transgender and gender diverse folks of color, intersex populations and individuals with variations in sex characteristics
- Interventions to mitigate, eliminate, or prevent family rejection and negative responses and actions
- Interventions to help establish or build existing family support and promote positive, affirming experiences
- Relationship restoration processes and their utility in interventions that build long-term positive health outcomes
- Different contexts in which family support interventions can take place or be facilitated (e.g., clinical settings, mental health practices, community centers, churches, assisted living residences, hospice care)
- Research to determine optimal intervention configurations (e.g., simultaneous inclusion of family members, focus on separate individuals, involvement of parenting support services)
- Longitudinal studies to probe long-term mental, physical, behavioral, and other health outcomes in the context of youth experiences with family acceptance and/or rejection
- Longitudinal studies to characterize shifts from rejection to support or vice versa and their impacts on long-term well-being
- Ethical, legal, and social implications of conducting research on family rejection and/or support and executing preventive or intervention strategies
Data Harmonization
The NIH encourages the usage of common data elements (CDEs) and other standardized measurement protocols whenever feasible in research studies to strengthen data consistency, usability, and interoperability. CDEs and protocols for capturing sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), social determinants of health, and other relevant topics can be found, for example, in the PhenX Toolkit social determinants of health core collection and the NIH CDE Repository. The SGMRO site features a webpage with examples of SOGI questions used in national surveys that may be helpful for harmonization with these data sets. Of relevance, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a consensus report in 2022 entitled Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation. It presents evidence-based recommended measures to assess sexual orientation identity and associated research recommendations for consideration by applicants to this NOSI. The report also offers specific measures for gender identity (comprised of sex assigned at birth and current gender in a two-step question that allows for passive identification of transgender experience) and intersex characteristics and variations in sex traits, as well as associated research recommendations which may be pertinent to investigators interested in capturing and/or evaluating a broader range of aspects of SGM status and experience.
Applications nonresponsive to terms of this NOSI will not be considered for the NOSI initiative.
Inquiries
Please direct all inquiries to the Scientific/Research, Peer Review, and Financial/Grants Management contacts in Section VII of the listed notice of funding opportunity.