Respond by offering additional insight about how social workers can work toward assuring the best outcomes for adolescents who are questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity. Please use the Learning Resources to support your response.

How might potential reactions to an adolescent's questioning of their sexual identity or gender role impact their social environment, behavior, and self-esteem?

Any adolescent, questioning their sexual identity or gender role will have an impact on their social environment, behavior, and self esteem. In the video, we learn Ella who is a 16 year old, Korean American identifies as non-binary. We also learn that Ella is afraid to talk and communicate with her parents regarding sexual identity. Unfortunately, the reaction to adolescence coming out to families and loved ones can have a negative impact. These negative actions and undertones can deter adolescence from sharing this or anything else about themselves. As we learn from the video, Ella feels pressured my parents about potential interest in boys. Causing Ella to spiral into depression and/orisolation.

"Adolescentdevelopmentischallengingforfamilies,astheidentitiesofbothparentsandyoutharefluidandevolvingduringthisdevelopmentalperiod" (Galinsky,[43 Links to an external site.]) These negative actions from families can affect the mental health , attitudes, and self esteem of adolescences. With lack of parental support and parental involvement can cause the adolescence potential risk of suicidal thoughts and/or attempts.

As a social worker, what role can you play in assuring the best outcomes for these adolescents?

"Social construction is the process by which people's per-ception of reality is largely shaped by the subjective meaning that they give to an experience...From this perspective, little shared reality exists beyond that which people socially create. It is, however this social construction of realiy that influences people's beliefs and actions." ( Zastrow, C. H., Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hessenauer, S. L. (2019)

As a social worker our role is advocacy as well as being transparent for our clients. We are the voice for the voiceless, and should always encourage the client to explore interventions design to improve their overall livelihood. We help to decrease stigma by educating and building relationships with clients to give reassurance while being nonjudgmental. We find resources such as family, therapy sessions and support groups to ensure the adolescence a sense of belonging while giving acknowledgement that you are not alone.