A new study hopes to find new ways for higher education and student affairs professionals to support LGBTQ+ college students while also shifting the narrative about their postsecondary education experiences.

The study includes Cindy Ann Kilgo, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs and Interim Co-Director of the National Survey of Student Engagement at Indiana University, who will serve as principal investigator. Co-PIs include Jodi Linley, Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs at the University of Iowa, and Alex Lange, Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Colorado State University. The team received a grant worth nearly $500,000 from the Spencer Foundation to fund their work.

The idea for the study stemmed from several projects the team was involved in, including the 2015 National Study of LGBTQ Student Success that focused on how LGBTQ+ students succeed in college, and a study in 2018 titled, “The Journeys of Transgender Students’ College Choice Processes and Transitions to Campus” exploring trans college students’ anticipatory socialization and socialization processes over four years of college. The studies marked a major turn in how researchers examined LGBTQ+ college students’ experiences. Up until that point, Kilgo said, the majority of research on LGBTQ+ students was focused on the negative campus climate present on college and university campuses.

Kilgo said the team’s goal is to create the first nationally representative study exploring the ways that LGBTQ+ students thrive in postsecondary education. The team will conduct a mixed-methods study to investigate and explore the ways that LGBTQ+ students succeed and thrive in college. The study will also use a new sampling technique for the quantitative portion of the study. Previously, most of the research on LGBTQ+ students has been conducted using sampling techniques that reach students who are out and involved in LGBTQ+ resources or student organizations - but this may leave out students who are not involved in organizations or attend events on campus related to gender or sexuality. With this new technique, the team hopes to reduce selection bias considerably. The study begins this month and will last for three years.

While most of the existing literature examines the negative campus climate and barriers that LGBTQ+ college students face, Kilgo explained this study departs from that approach by using asset-based framing to focus on how these students succeed and how institutions can best support and serve their success.

“Most colleges and universities applications or student record systems do not collect data on gender or sexuality. As a result, colleges cannot examine how their LGBTQ+ students are doing (are they being retained, are they studying abroad at the same rate as their heterosexual or cisgender peers, etc.). So, while research on LGBTQ+ college students has been happening for decades, colleges and universities are still uninformed on how to best serve these student populations,” Kilgo said.

“Our goal was to create the first nationally representative study exploring the ways that LGBTQ+ students thrive in postsecondary education,” they added.