Sexual Orientation And Survival Analysis

As a Korean-American lesbian, I often wondered how other people of marginalized identities understand their sense of belonging in the larger society. I had not yet developed my sociological imagination to critically examine how larger social structures shape the ways people understand their social worlds. Now, my sociological training allows me to develop the theoretical, methodological, and organizational approaches necessary to explore how marginalized individuals navigate society, particularly how discrimination influences individuals’ identity processes, and challenge and/or shape societal understanding of their structural locations.
My interest in diversity was shaped largely by my research experiences at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. As a Master’s student, I worked with Dr. William Kornblum and Dr. Juan Battle on CUNY As a Lab project, a mixed-methods project investigating college preparedness and engagement of …show more content…
Using the National Latino and Asian American Survey (NLAAS) dataset, I conducted a discrete-time survival analysis to investigate the effects of sexual orientation and immigrant generation status on the age of smoking onset among Latino/as and Asians. Findings show that first generation immigrant status among Latino/a and Asian sexual minorities has a protective function against deviant health behaviors like smoking. I presented my findings at the Fenway Institute’s LGBT Population Health Presentations series and am now expanding this project to also consider the effects of immigrant documentation status for submission to Journal of Immigrant and Migrant Health. This project exhibits my abilities to theoretically and methodologically bridge social and health sciences to better serve LGBT people of color and assess their health-related social needs and