Joshua Rusow’s (he/him) research primarily focuses on the health and wellbeing of sexual and gender minority youth and young adults—understanding how experiences of stigma and discrimination are associated with relationships, behavior, and mental, physical, and sexual health. His doctoral research highlighted the occurrence of teen dating violence and sexual assault among sexual minority adolescents in different contexts throughout the United States. That work employed longitudinal modeling to identify correlates before and after physical and sexual violence experiences to understand the mechanisms that may contribute to the well-established relationship violence and health disparities observed in sexual minority adolescent populations.

His emerging research focuses on 1) how sexual minority adolescents learn about romantic relationships; 2) how they think about relationships that involve violence; and 3) how experiences of violence (both in and outside of romantic relationships) impact LGBTQ+ youth health. Joshua collaborates with colleagues at Friends Research Institute and San Diego State University on a clinical trial of technology use to build peer relationships in preventing HIV, promote PrEP uptake, and reduce gender-based stigma among gender minority youth and young adults.

Prior to joining the Brown School, Rusow completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Research on Children, Youth and Families at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.