Abstract
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, most youth were confined to their home in a period known as ‘lockdown’ to prevent the spread of the virus. For many LGBTQ youth, this meant being confined with caregivers who were perceived as unaccepting or unaware of their identity. Simultaneously, they were cut off from supportive adults and peers at school and in the community. The following is a banded dissertation examining the experiences of LGBTQ youth during this period. Product 1 of the dissertation is a conceptual paper introducing the LGBTQ Youth Pandemic Stress and Intervention model (LYPSI), which was developed using current studies on LGBTQ youth and the pandemic, resilience factors, and interventions all focused on this specific population. Product 2 is an exploratory study of LGBTQ youth experiences of the pandemic as observed by Gender-Sexuality Alliance advisors. Product 3 is a presentation of both the conceptual paper and the research paper given at the conference for the National Association of Social Workers - Wisconsin Chapter