Project Summary / Abstract Increased rates of depression and suicidality among LGBTQ people of color (LGBTQ-POC) is a critically important public health concern. LGBTQ-POC experience the cumulative stress of systemic in- equality and discrimination, including lower socioeconomic status, higher exposure to neighborhood crime, trau- matic childhood experiences, and differential access to mental health care and resources. Although critical for early prevention and clinical practice, essential gaps remain to understand depression and suicide-related behav- iors among LGBTQ-POC. Reduced samples in individual studies and methodological limitations have restricted our ability to understand depression and suicidality from a developmental perspective. I propose using a se- quential cohort design and Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) to examine longitudinal trajectories of depression and suicidality among LGBTQ-POC adolescents. IDA combines individual-level data from multiple independent studies into a single dataset. IDA provides increased statistical power, increased frequency of low base-rate behaviors, and the ability to study an expanded sample of underrepresented subgroups. Further, I will explore overlapping age cohorts across numerous longitudinal studies using a sequential co- hort design, which will provide a much broader understanding of development. The proposed study includes adolescents in 18 randomized prevention trials who identified as LGBTQ-POC (N = 2,029). Researchers surveyed participants at varying intervals from 1 to 15.25 years. At baseline, youth enrolled in the studies were 7 to 19 years of age (M = 12.7). Given the length of the trials, the proposed study will examine a sizable developmental period from 7 up to 34 years. In Aim 1, I will use multilevel growth mixture modeling (MGMM) to examine longi- tudinal trajectories of depression and suicide-related behaviors among LGBTQ-POC. In Aim 2, I will identify early depression symptoms associated with longitudinal trajectories of suicide ideation and behaviors. Lastly, Aim 3 will examine the impact of early intrapersonal and interpersonal protective factors on longitudinal trajectories of depression and suicidality. These aims closely align with strategic Goals 2 and 3 of NIMH to “examine mental illness trajectories throughout the lifespan” and “highlight efforts to improve preventive and therapeutic inter- ventions.” Further, the aims of this fellowship can support efforts to remediate systemic inequalities in mental healthcare that disproportionately impact LGBTQ-POC. These insights could offer new evidence and actionable tools to supplement existing interventions and target prevention efforts to critical periods of development and groups of high need capitalizing on the strengths and protective factors of LGBTQ-POC. Lastly, this fellowship will allow me to build a strong background in developmental science, mental health prevention, and quantitative methodology with a focus on the h...