Public Health Policy to Support Sexual Minority Youth of Color: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Policy-Making Process

The multiple streams theory of policy-making is particularly useful to describe policy situations where there is (1) policy ambiguity and (2) temporal pressures. It suggests that in these situations, the policy-making process is not rational but is reflective of policy networks and policy manipulation. This study used legal records, public records requests and interviews with policy makers to identify key variables in the policy environment that impact policy-making and to describe how policy subsystems interact. Policy networks and influences are described and new methodological approaches are developed to apply qualitative analysis techniques and tools to legal analysis. Using deductive and inductive coding techniques, the researchers explore possible causes for the failure of Massachusetts to successfully implement explicit policy to reduce health disparities focusing on GLBT youth of color. Understanding the policy process and the translation of policy into effective health outcomes is key both for good public health but also for social justice and is key to understand the implementation of policy to reduce health disparities based on race and ethnicity.