Disaggregating Racial and Ethnic Data to Examine Intersectional Identities, Bias-Based Bullying, and Mental Health

Intersectional theory underscores the ways in which an individual’s diverse social identities may interact with one another to shape a person’s lived experiences. This perspective emerged, in part, as a response to concerns that focusing on a single axis of oppression, such as racism or sexism, may ignore the unique experiences of individuals who experience marginalization along multiple dimensions (eg, both racism and heterosexism). Research grounded in intersectionality that examines how social identities uniquely contribute to experiences of discrimination and associated health outcomes is imperative for guiding prevention and intervention approaches tailored to the lived experiences of diverse youth.