Papke, Victoria2024-03-292024-03-292024-01https://hdl.handle.net/11299/261976University of Minnesota M.A. thesis. January 2024. Major: Psychology. Advisors: Monica Luciana, Bonnie Klimes-Dougan. 1 computer file (PDF); v, 42 pages.The burden of societal stressors on individuals who identify as sexual and gender minorities (SGM) can be tremendous. Minority stress has been linked to indexes of accelerated aging across the lifespan in racial and ethnic minorities but has yet to be examined in SGM youth. This study explores whether SGM youth who report that their identity is a problem at school or home, a potential index of minority stress (STRESS+) would show more evidence of accelerated pubertal development compared to those who do not report their identity as being a problem (STRESS-). This study uses data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study®. Participants were 9-10 years old at baseline, 10-11 years old at T1, and 11-12 years old at T2. Participants who identified as SGM at any time point were included in data analyses (N= 475). Pubertal development across different time points were compared between STRESS+ and STRESS-. Among 490 participants who identified as SGM, 397 were assigned female at birth and 138 were in the STRESS+ group. As hypothesized, pubertal development was accelerated across time for STRESS+ in comparison to STRESS-. This finding appeared to be driven by differences at T1. We reported that accelerations in pubertal development were associated with minority stress in SGM youth (ages 9-12). These findings set the foundation for future work examining the impacts of minority stress on developmental processes in SGM youth as they move through the critical stages of adolescence into adulthood.enThesis or Dissertation