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Given the pace of social changes, meanings of "family" and what makes a family healthy are changing. How can these changing meanings and understandings contribute to social justice for all families? First, I acknowledge how my personal history has intersected with research I do on youth and families. I define social justice with respect to healthy families, and then consider how contemporary scholarship helps define, redefine, and refine what is meant by "family." Examples are presented from research on cultural influences on parenting; parenting in same‐sex couple or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) families; and coming out in adolescence as LGBTQ. These examples illustrate how the notion of family is defined, redefined, and refined to provide new vantage points on the complexities, possibilities, and potential for social justice among contemporary families, especially those that are marginalized.

In what ways might research on adolescence contribute to social justice? My 2014 Presidential Address identified strategies for social justice in our field. First, we need research that is conscious of biases, power, and privilege in science, as well as in our roles as scholars. Second, we need research that attends to inequities in lives of adolescents, and as scholars we need to question the ways that our research may unwittingly reinforce those inequalities. Third, we need research that attends to urgencies, that is, issues or conditions that influence adolescents' well‐being which demand attention and action. I draw from a range of concepts and theoretical perspectives to make the case for a framework of social justice in research on adolescence.

Numerous studies spanning the past quarter century have used varied designs and methods in multiple settings and have consistently demonstrated that sexual minority youth are among those most likely to report suicidality (suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts). This article reviews the methodological challenges that have defined and limited research in this area, including issues of sampling, the measurement of sexual minority status, and the measurement of suicide risk. Attention is then given to risk and protective factors for suicide among sexual minority youth. Normative risk and protective factors, those common to all youth, and risk and protective factors unique to sexual minority youth are reviewed. In closing, attention is given to the state of suicide prevention and intervention efforts that target sexual minority youth, along with recommendations for further research.

Adolescence is often assumed to be the most important period of life for understanding teen childbearing risk. Developmental perspectives challenge that assumption, offering the possibility that early childhood characteristics may have unique and lasting effects on the risk for teen childbearing. This study examined family life risk factors (socioeconomic status, family stress, and parental involvement in education) and how their effects on teen childbearing risk varied, depending on the childhood age at which they were experienced. Prospective life history data from the National Child Development Study of Great Britain were used to study a birth cohort of 4,928 British women, 15.3% of who became pregnant as teens. This study demonstrated that data from early childhood significantly contribute to the understanding of teen childbearing risk.

School climate is an important construct in research on adolescents. Yet, no known studies have evaluated whether the measured school climate constructs are equivalent across lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning (LGBTQ), and heterosexual students as well as sex and grade levels. This study assessed measurement equivalence of a second‐order school climate construct across 1) sexual identity and sex among cisgender adolescents and 2) sexual and gender identity and grade level among cisgender and transgender adolescents. Data come from a California statewide survey of middle and high school students. Measurement equivalence was supported. This study reinforces prior findings on sexual and gender minority disparities and sheds light on an interesting pattern of school experiences across grades that deserves further investigation.

Queering questions that which is normative. In this article, we discuss how, for the study of queer families, queering methodologies could reclaim traditional research methods that reflect historically dominant or privileged paradigms. We suggest that queer perspectives may be used to adapt mainstream (i.e., dominant, positivist, empirical) methods, creating possibilities for new, diverse understandings of queer families. We start with comments on the development and current standing of queer family research. We then reflect on several key conceptual and methodological tensions as they apply to queer family studies: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals ↔ queer families, between‐group ↔ within‐group, and quantitative ↔ qualitative. In conclusion, we discuss how these methodological considerations provide researchers opportunities to conduct research not only about but for queer families. Such research may reflect the diversity of queer families and challenge the normativities and systems of privilege that constrain them.

Same‐sex attracted youth (SSAY) experience higher rates of negative mental health outcomes compared with their heterosexual peers; however, the association between sexual minority status and academic achievement is less clear. We used four waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to compare 1,279 ethnically diverse SSAY (57% male) based on the degree to which they were "engaged" (65%) or "disengaged" (35%) in school, classified through cluster analysis techniques. The pattern of results indicated significantly better mental health among the engaged group one and 6 years later (e.g., fewer depressive symptoms, less alcohol use), and more occupational and educational achievement eleven years later. The implications of school connection and achievement across a decade of life are discussed.