Who’s under the umbrella? LGBTQ+-focused research in social work journals

There has been a recent increase in anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) sentiments, bias-related incidents, related hate groups and targeted political attacks via proposed and passed legislation. These noted increases in attitudes and actions against the LGBTQ+ community can negatively impact physical and mental health in these communities. There is a clear need to ensure that developing social work practitioners are prepared to competently work with this community. This article examines the sample inclusivity of published Social Work research focused on LGBTQ+ populations. Articles primarily focused on the substantive areas of aging (33%) and youth (25%). Forty-nine percent of the sample applied a deficit lens. Results found that 82% of authors use the LGBTQ+ acronym as an umbrella term without reporting the inclusion of participants from each identity group. Eighteen percent of the included studies did not specify sexual and gender minority identities in the sample and did not include any reference in the discussion regarding sample characteristics results. The discrepancy between the utilization of the LGBTQ+ umbrella term within research and the actual sample representation poses a challenge for building a nuanced knowledge base in social work and may contribute to the potential misguidance of practitioners, students, and researchers.