Dr. Parra approaches science and pedagogy with an intersectional anti-racist and anti-heterosexist perspective. He applies developmental, social, ecological, critical race, queer, and intersectionality theories to investigate how peoples’ racist and heterosexist beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors affect behavioral and mental health among marginalized populations. His work emphasizes how multiple intersecting forms of discrimination impair biopsychosocial adjustment among ethnically and racially diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) adolescents and emerging adults.
The effects of multiple forms of minority stress on neurobiology and psychological health.
A primary area of research conducted in the QIND Collective focuses on the effects of discrimination on the body’s stress responses and psychological health. Specifically, we focus on how heterosexism and racism intersect and affect varying patterns of the stress hormone cortisol, sexual, racial, and ethnic identity integration processes, and depressive symptoms among LGBTQ-POC adolescents and emerging adults. This work seeks to identify and describe etiological mechanisms linking social stress to health disparities.
Parra, L. A., Benibgui, M., Helm J. L., & Hastings P. D. (2016). Minority stress predicts depression in lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults via elevated diurnal cortisol. Emerging Adulthood, 4(5), 365–372. DOI: 10.1177/216769681562682
Parra, L. A., & Hastings, P.D. (2020). Challenges to identity integration indirectly link experiences of heterosexist and racist discrimination to lower waking salivary cortisol in sexually diverse Latinx emerging adults. Frontiers in Psychology. DO1: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00228
Parra, L. A., Helm, J. L., & Hastings, P.D. (2022) Adrenocortical responses of emerging adults in California in the two months following the Pulse Night Club massacre: Evidence for distal stress responses. Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 100129. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100129
Representative peer-reviewed published articles
The impacts of positive social relationships on the psychological health of LGBTQ, LGBTQ-POC adolescents and emerging adults.
Supportive families, parents, friends, and peers are critical for helping LGBQT feel accepted, affirmed, and to feel social connection and belonging. These supportive social relationships can protect LGBTQ-POC adolescents and emerging adults against the effects of multiple minority stressors and dimmish risk for worse psychological health outcomes. In the QIND Collective we examine the protective and buffering effects of supportive families and peers.
Parra, L. A., Bell, T.S., Benibgui, M., Helm, J. L., & Hastings, P. D. (2017). The buffering effect of peer social support: Peer support, family rejection, and psychosocial adjustment in LGB emerging adults. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 34(7), 189–211.
Parra, L. A., van Bergen, Dumon, E., Kretschmer, T., La Roi, C., Portzky, G., & Frost, D. (2021). Family belongingness attenuates entrapment and buffers its association with suicidal ideation in a sample of Dutch sexual minority emerging adults. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Advance online publication.
O’Brien, R. P., Parra, L. A., & Cederbaum, J. (2021). “Trying my best”: Sexual minority adolescents’ self-care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Adolescent Health. Advance online publication