Researchers have known for 25 years that gay, lesbian and bisexual teen-agers are most at risk for the worst that can happen to kids -- depression, substance abuse, violence, unwanted pregnancies and suicide. The how and why will now be answered, thanks to a $300,000 grant given to a UC Davis researcher to analyze results from the first national survey of teen-agers. Stephen Russell, a 4-H youth development specialist in the UC Davis human and community development department, will spend the next five years examining the lives of teens involved in a federally funded study conducted by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is being funded by the William T. Grant Foundation of New York to provide the first comprehensive, nationally representative study on the subject. "There is a horrifying gap in our understanding of the lives of these kids," Russell says. "We want to move beyond simply documenting the at-risk behavior to explain why it is there and then begin to talk about intervention, prevention and education." Specifically, Russell will be looking at 20,000 youth first surveyed across the nation in 1995 while in grades 7-12. They were again surveyed this year. The study collected data about their family life, peer relationships, school environment, emotional health and risky behaviors. Already Russell has made significant discoveries from the national study. In an article published June 1 in the American Journal of Public Health, Russell and two co-authors reported that: o Youths who report same-sex or both-sex romantic attractions are more likely to experience extreme forms of violence than youths who report other-sex attractions. They are also more likely to witness violence as well as to perpetrate violence. The vast majority of these youths were male. This issue of gay boys perpetrating violence, however, relates to their previous experiences, Russell explained. "They appear to be acting defensively once they have been victimized." o Youths attracted to the same sex were nearly twice as likely than the average teen to be violently attacked and need medical treatment from the violence, and bisexual teens were 1 1/2 times as likely to be attacked and need medical treatment. Again, these youths were mostly boys. In another analysis by Russell and two co-authors published in the Journal of Adolescence earlier this year, the authors looked at school outcomes and family relations among the group. Among the findings: o Parental reports about their relationship with their child differed significantly for kids attracted to the same sex or both sexes than from kids attracted to the opposite sex only. Particularly, girls attracted exclusively to the same sex and their mothers both reported the most negative relationships. Boys attracted to the same sex had the most positive relationships with their mothers. o Bisexually attracted boys had significantly lower grades than their peers. Although not asked to identify themselves as gay or lesbian, the youths were requested to indicate whether they had any romantic attractions to the same or opposite sex. From the total, 7 percent, or about 1,400, said they were attracted to the same or both genders -- with the number of bisexual attractions far outnumbering the single-sex attractions. This is the first study to take such an extensive survey of youths across the social, ethnic and geographic strata of America, Russell says. It's important because researchers can now go beyond data about white urban gay youth to learn about teens from other backgrounds living not only in big cities but also in the suburbs and rural areas. The UNC study raises a big question about the nature of bisexual attraction, says Russell. The study found among this particular subset of students, there were many more bisexuals. Of the bisexually attracted teens, many more boys than girls felt attractions to both genders. "The stereotype is that kids experiencing bisexuality are just on their way to defining themselves as gay or lesbian -- we don't know if this is the case for these youth," Russell said. "We also don't know whether they consider themselves bisexual now, or if they will in the future. There is a huge vacuum in our knowledge of how sex preferences are developed." Russell not only researches adolescence and sexuality but provides youth development education for youth services professionals and volunteers throughout California. He also is in charge of Bridge for Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Sexuality, a national U.S. Department of Agriculture program that marshals the human, program, and research resources of the land-grant universities to address the issues of adolescent pregnancy, parenting, and sexuality in communities across the United States.