About

Paul R. Sterzing, PhD, is an associate professor at the School of Social Welfare at Berkeley. He is a graduate of the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis and serves as the Co-director of the Center for Prevention Research in Social Welfare. Dr. Sterzing's research focuses on adolescent violence and victimization, with particular attention to bullying involvement roles among vulnerable adolescent populations, including autistic youth, sexual and gender minority adolescents, and youth in the child welfare system. His work identifies modifiable risk and protective factors related to bullying, polyvictimization, and microaggressions, and explores their impact on mental health and wellbeing. Notably, he provided the first nationally representative estimates of bullying involvement roles for autistic youth and led a large-scale study on polyvictimization among sexual and gender minority adolescents. His research also advances understanding of subtle victimization forms such as microaggressions, especially at the intersection of sexual, gender, and racial identities. Dr. Sterzing is also a faculty affiliate with the Gender and Women's Studies Department and has contributed to developing intervention strategies aimed at increasing social integration and empathy among vulnerable youth.

Research topics

• Clinical psychology
• Social psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Psychiatry

Selected publications

• From Bullying Victimization to Sexual Coercion Victimization: Do These Differ for Heterosexual and LGB Adolescents in the United States?

  Behavioral Sciences & the Law · 2026-03-15

  article

  The current study proposes pathways from bullying victimization to sexual coercion victimization mediated by using drugs and engaging in sex with drugs. The study sample included heterosexual or LGB youth. Measures included bullying victimization, using drugs, engaging in sex with drugs, sexual coercion victimization, and the covariates, which are sex and age. Path analyses were conducted for heterosexual and LGB adolescents. Among heterosexuals, bullying victimization was positively associated with sexual coercion victimization. Using drugs and engaging in sex with drugs were also positively associated with sexual coercion victimization. Among LGBs, bullying victimization was positively associated with sexual coercion victimization. Using drugs and engaging in sex with drugs were also positively related to sexual coercion victimization. Findings from the study have implications for juvenile justice and school-based practice.

  PublisherDOI

• Social support and mutual aid during a pandemic: Experiences of African American, Latina, and White sexual minority women

  Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Services · 2025-07-02 · 1 citations

  article

  The COVID-19 pandemic created barriers to social support for sexual minority women (SMW), which is vital to the promotion of mental and behavioral health resilience when confronting prolonged and/or excessive stress. We used phenomenological analysis to characterize ways SMW experienced and fostered social support during the pandemic. Seventeen Black, Latina, and White SMW completed Zoom and telephone interviews about their experiences during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, including changes in support from family, friends, partners, neighbors, colleagues, and the LGBTQ+ community. Study findings highlight the importance of social support and mutual aid for SMW's resilience and wellbeing during the pandemic.

  PublisherDOI

• Resilience Through Social Support: An Intersectional Analysis of Sexual Minority Women’s Social Resources for Wellbeing

  Journal of Homosexuality · 2024-06-04 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access

  Sexual minority women (SMW) are at higher risk for a range of health conditions (e.g. depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder) than heterosexual women. However, poor health outcomes do not occur for all SMW. Resilience provides a lens for understanding why some SMW maintain good mental and behavioral health despite the presence of multiple risk factors. Few studies have examined the resilience-promoting factor of social support in relation to depression, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder in SMW. There is a need for further research clarifying sources of social support (e.g. family, significant others, friends, LGBTQ+ community) associated with resilient outcomes for SMW. This study used data from a telephone-based survey of 520 SMW to examine the relationships between resilience and social support. We used multiple regression and tested for interactions with ethnoracial identity and sexual identity. Greater levels of overall social support were associated with greater resilience, as was social support from the LGBTQ+ community in particular. There were few differences in these relationships by ethnoracial identity, sexual identity, or their intersections. Interventions that increase social support across any of four support sources appear to have the potential to increase resilience and decrease mental and behavioral health risks for SMW.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Lessons from Critical and Transnational Disability Perspectives for Social Work

  The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare · 2024-01-01

  article

  This paper calls on social work to incorporate anti-oppressive paradigms in research, practice, education, and policy by developing a critical understanding of disability. Critical disability studies is an interdisciplinary field that challenges hegemonic framings that individualize and pathologize disability and recognizes the ways in which ableism intersects with other systems of oppression. Transnational disability studies provides explicit attention to the power dynamics between the Global North and the Global South. Adopting a perspective grounded in these two frameworks offers direction for social workers to apply the principles of disability justice in their choices for clinical interventions, policy goals, classroom strategies, and research methodologies.

  PublisherDOI

• Ethnoracial Differences in Past Year Victimization Rates for a National Sample of Gender and Sexual Minority Adolescents

  Violence and Victims · 2023-04-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Trans adolescents’ perceptions and experiences of their parents’ supportive and rejecting behaviors.

  Journal of Counseling Psychology · 2020 · 85 citations

  • Psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Clinical psychology

  Transgender (trans) adolescents consistently report higher rates of adverse mental health outcomes compared to their cisgender peers. Parental support is a recognized adolescent protective factor; however, little is known about the specific parental behaviors that trans adolescents perceive as most or least supportive. To address this gap, we analyzed data from qualitative interviews conducted with an ethnically diverse, urban-based sample of trans adolescents (N = 24; 16-20 years old) to describe (a) the spectrum of specific parental behaviors across 3 categories-rejecting, supportive, and mixed (i.e., simultaneous supportive and rejecting behaviors)-and (b) the perceived psychosocial consequences across these 3 categories of parental behaviors. Qualitative data were gathered through lifeline interviews (i.e., visual representations from birth to present) and photo elicitation (i.e., photographs representing parental support and/or rejection). Supportive behaviors included instances where parents made independent efforts to learn about trans issues or help their child obtain gender-affirming health care. Rejecting behaviors included instances when parents refused to use their child's name or pronouns or failed to show empathy when their child struggled with gender-identity-related challenges. Mixed behaviors included examples when parents expressed support of their child's gender identity, but not of their sexual orientation (or vice versa). Overall, participants reported that rejecting and mixed parental behaviors contributed to a range of psychosocial problems (e.g., depression and suicidal ideation), while supportive behaviors increased positive wellbeing. These findings expand upon descriptions of parental support and rejection within the trans adolescent literature and can help practitioners target specific behaviors for interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• LGBTQ Microaggressions and Microaffirmations in Families Scale

  PsycTESTS Dataset · 2020-01-01

  dataset1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A Scoping Review of Measures Assessing Gender Microaggressions Against Women

  Psychology of Women Quarterly · 2020-06-15 · 26 citations

  review

  While considerable knowledge exists about blatant gender discrimination and violence targeting women, less is known about gender microaggressions. To understand gender microaggressions’ frequency, prevalence, and effects, researchers need robust quantitative measures. To advance gender microaggressions scholarship and support researchers’ efforts to identify high-quality measures, we conducted a psychometric scoping review. We identified 24 original, quantitative, multi-item measures designed to assess gender microaggressions or related constructs. Included measures needed at least one item assessing gender microaggressions and be used with adult women in the United States. Results indicated an increase in the number of measures including gender microaggressions’ items in recent years, with a major expansion in the number of named gender microaggressions’ measures. We found limited reporting of demographic information. Psychometric testing and characteristics varied across measures. While most ( n = 20) reported internal consistency reliability, only two-thirds ( n = 16) reported undergoing validity testing. When examining microaggressions named measures ( n = 10), we found inconsistent adherence to microaggressions’ theoretical and conceptual foundations. Substantial work remains to develop a “gold standard” measure that does not conflate subtle and blatant acts, assesses the full thematic range of gender microaggressions, and is psychometrically valid across different social contexts and diverse groups of women.

  PublisherDOI

• Sexual Orientation, Gender, and Gender Identity Microaggressions: Toward an Intersectional Framework for Social Work Research

  2020-09-03

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Familial pathways to polyvictimization for sexual and genderminority adolescents: Microaffirming, microaggressing, violent, and adversefamilies.

  Psychology of Violence · 2018-11-05 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Rachel E. Gartner

  University of Pittsburgh

  15 shared

• Paul Shattuck

  Mathematica Policy Research

  7 shared

• Jeremy T. Goldbach

  Washington University in St. Louis

  6 shared

• Jun Sung Hong

  6 shared

• Colleen M. Fisher

  University of Alabama at Birmingham

  5 shared

• Sarah C. Narendorf

  New York University

  5 shared

• Benjamin P. Cooper

  4 shared

• Briana L. McGeough

  University of Kansas

  4 shared

Education

• PhD, George Warren Brown School of Social Work

  Washington University in Saint Louis

  2012

• PhD, George Warren Brown School of Social Work

  Washington University in Saint Louis

  2012