Call for Abstracts: Special Issue of Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity Honoring Dr. Jeremy T. Goldbach

Title:
Innovations in research on LGBTQ+ youth mental health: A special issue in honor of Dr. Jeremy T. Goldbach

Guest Editors:
Drs. Brian A. Feinstein, Ethan H. Mereish, & M. Paz Galupo

Timeline:
September 15, 2025: Abstracts due
October 15, 2025: Invitations to submit full manuscripts will be sent
February 28, 2025: Full manuscripts due

Call for Abstracts:
The goal of this special issue is to honor the career and legacy of Dr. Jeremy T. Goldbach—a leading scholar of LGBTQ+ youth mental health whose life and career ended far too soon in June 2025 due to cancer. After completing his master’s and PhD in Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Goldbach began his illustrious career at the University of Southern California, where he served as faculty for a decade before joining the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis in 2021 as the inaugural Masters and Johnson Distinguished Professor of Sexual Health and Education. For over 15 years, Dr. Goldbach dedicated his career to research aimed at understanding and improving the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ youth. Funded by the NIH, SAMHSA, DoD, and foundations, he conducted innovative and rigorous research that resulted in developing novel tools for measuring minority stress among LGBTQ+ adolescents; identifying the longitudinal trajectories and impacts of minority stress on LGBTQ+ adolescents’ mental health; identifying the mechanisms underlying the mental health and substance use disparities observed in LGBTQ+ youth; and creating new multi-level interventions to disrupt the negative impacts of minority stress and improve LGBTQ+ youth mental health. In recognition of his many impacts on the field, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare earlier this year. Dr. Goldbach will not only be remembered for his impacts on LGBTQ+ youth and the field of LGBTQ+ health, but also for his impacts on his mentees, colleagues, friends, and family. He approached his work with authenticity, compassion, humility, and humor, along with an unwavering dedication to his students. In honor of Dr. Goldbach’s career and legacy, we invite submissions from a range of disciplines (e.g., social work, counseling, psychology, public health) that highlight innovations in understanding and addressing the mental and behavioral health needs of LGBTQ+ youth while considering intersectional identities and experiences. Submissions may include quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods research as well as systematic reviews. Theoretical or conceptual papers may be considered if they significantly advance the developmental understanding of LGBTQ+ youth mental health.

Examples of topics of interest include:

• Development and/or psychometric validation of novel measures for LGBTQ+ youth;

• Mechanisms underlying the mental health and substance use disparities observed in LGBTQ+ youth;

• Impacts of multiple forms of minority stress on LGBTQ+ adolescents’ mental health, including their intersectional experiences;

• Multi-level factors that promote coping, resilience, wellbeing, and positive development for LGBTQ+ youth;

• School- and/or LGBTQ+ youth center-based experiences and their influences on mental health and substance use among LGBTQ+ youth;

• Development, testing, and implementation of interventions designed to improve health and wellbeing for LGBTQ+ youth;

• Evaluation of programs designed to support LGBTQ+ youth. This is not an exhaustive list; other topics are welcome as long as they relate to LGBTQ+ youth development and mental health.

For consideration in this special issue, please submit a brief letter of intent and proposal to Drs. Brian Feinstein (brian.feinstein@rosalindfranklin.edu), Ethan Mereish (emereish@umd.edu), and Paz Galupo (paz@wustl.edu) by September 15, 2025. The subject of your email should read “Special Issue of PSOGD” and submissions should include:

• A title (or preliminary title);

• Names and affiliations of all authors, and contact information for the corresponding author;

• A brief letter of intent that describes: a) the fit of your proposal with this special issue and/or Dr. Goldbach’s work; b) the status of data collection (for empirical papers); and c) any other contextual information that might be helpful for the guest editors’ review of the proposal;

• A description of the proposed research including its rationale/significance, methods, results, and conclusions (maximum 500 words);

• References.

Invitations to submit a full manuscript will be sent by October 15, 2025 and full manuscripts will be due by February 28, 2026. Full manuscripts will be submitted through the PSOGD manuscript portal and sent out for peer review; as such, an invitation to submit a full manuscript is not a guarantee of eventual acceptance.