Search

Adolescents use some types of homophobic language (e.g., “that’s so gay”) as a form of banter, while other types are directly targeted as an intentional insult (e.g., calling someone a “fag, dyke, homo”). Little research has investigated adolescents’ use and judgments about these types of homophobic language and whether judgments differ if they are used among friends or directed toward non-friend peers. This study investigated how relationship context and victim’s (N = 477, Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.63) emotional responses related to judgments about anti-gay banter and homophobic name-calling. Adolescents evaluated homophobic name-calling as more wrong than anti-gay banter. While adolescents’ evaluations of homophobic name-calling did not differ based on relationship context, adolescents did differentiate between anti-gay banter perpetrated by a friend vs. a peer. Further, emotional responses mediated these relationships in the anti-gay banter situation. These results suggest that adolescents’ judgments about homophobic language are related to the relationship context and the type of homophobic language used.

LGBTQ-supportive youth programs provide access to critical resources and social support in identity-affirming environments. In Chicago, Illinois, an informal network of LGTBQ-supportive youth progr...

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents face well-documented health disparities in suicide risk, substance use, and sexual health. These disparities are known to stem, in part, from stigma directed toward LGBTQ youth in the form of minority stressors such as violence, discrimination, and harassment. Given the proportion of time that LGBTQ students spend in school, schools provide a critical context within which protective factors may be developed and leveraged to improve the health and wellbeing of these populations. This article provides a summary of key findings from a discussion among researchers, practitioners, and community members who participated in "The State of LGBTQ Youth Health and Wellbeing: Strengthening Schools and Families to Build Resilience," a public symposium held in June 2017. We detail emerging science on and future priorities for school-based research with LGBTQ youth which were identified by attendees at this meeting, with a particular focus on intersectionality, supportive adults in schools, and in-school programs. We call for more school-based research on priority gaps such as how LGBTQ students' intersecting identities affect their in-school experiences, how to design professional development programs that cultivate supportive educators, and how to leverage gay-straight alliances/gender and sexuality alliances as sites of health programming for LGBTQ students.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations frequently experience interpersonal and structural forms of oppression, discrimination, and other bias. This chapter discusses the development and expression of children’s and adolescents’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to sexual and gender diversity in the United States. The authors first consider social cognitive domain theory as a relevant framework for understanding the range of factors associated with heterosexual and cisgender youths’ attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors toward SGM youth, and discuss the importance of documenting the complex and multidimensional nature of these attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through a lens of moral reasoning. Second, the authors discuss the development of alliances among heterosexual and cisgender youth, with attention to contact theory and experiences of other types of oppression. Finally, the authors examine SGM youths’ own engagement in activism and behaviors intended to disrupt heteronormativity and cisnormativity as possible extensions of their own social judgments, beliefs, and behaviors.

Outside the immediate classroom setting, efforts within other school spaces also can shape school climate, address inequality, and affect student performance. Nevertheless, in this respect there has been little research on school-based extracurricular groups focused on issues of social inclusion and justice. An exception to this lack of focus has been Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs), which promote social inclusion and justice for sexual and gender minority youth (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning youth; LGBTQ) through support, socializing, education, and advocacy. As this literature has matured, we detail and provide examples of the following conceptual and methodological recommendations to address emerging research needs for GSAs: (1) Move from a monolithic to contextualized treatment of GSAs, (2) attend to heterogeneity among members, (3) utilize multiple data sources for triangulation, (4) apply a range of methodological approaches to capitalize on strengths of different designs, (5) collect longitudinal data over short-term and extended time periods, and (6) consider GSAs within a broader umbrella of youth settings. Further, we note ways in which these recommendations apply to other student groups organized around specific sociocultural identities. These advances could produce more comprehensive empirically supported models to guide GSAs and similar groups on how to promote resilience among their diverse members and address broader social issues within their schools.

A diverse group of adolescents (N = 41) from a large city in the Midwestern United States participated in focus groups about misogynistic and homophobic language. Our qualitative analysis yielded two major themes. First, participants discussed this language as a way to regulate peers' conformity to norms related to gender and sexuality. Second, participants spoke about the importance of the relationship between individuals using this language in determining different intentions. Understanding young people's perceptions of these types of interactions and the intentions behind them will allow us to more effectively reduce young peoples' use of misogynistic and homophobic language in schools.

One hundred and fifty-six adolescents, drawn from a high school in a Midwestern suburb, provided judgments of a hypothetical incident of homophobic harassment with either a male or female victim. Participants also completed a revised version of the Macho Scale, measuring their endorsement of gender stereotypes (α = .75). Without the interaction term, victim gender was not predictive of judgments of the harassment, however, endorsement of gender stereotypes decreased the odds of believing the behavior was completely wrong (χ2 (1) = 9.18, p = .00). Once added, the interaction term was the only significant variable in the model, demonstrating that endorsement of gender stereotypes has an effect on judgments of homophobic harassment of male victims, but not female victims (χ2 (1) = 4.78, p = .03). As more schools invest resources in anti-harassment initiatives, our findings suggest that discussion of gender and gender stereotypes is essential.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents face well-documented health disparities in suicide risk, substance use, and sexual health. These disparities are known to stem, in part, from stigma directed toward LGBTQ youth in the form of minority stressors such as violence, discrimination, and harassment. Given the proportion of time that LGBTQ students spend in school, schools provide a critical context within which protective factors may be developed and leveraged to improve the health and wellbeing of these populations. This article provides a summary of key findings from a discussion among researchers, practitioners, and community members who participated in “The State of LGBTQ Youth Health and Wellbeing: Strengthening Schools and Families to Build Resilience,” a public symposium held in June 2017. We detail emerging science on and future priorities for school-based research with LGBTQ youth which were identified by attendees at this meeting, with a particular focus on intersectionality, supportive adults in schools, and in-school programs. We call for more school-based research on priority gaps such as how LGBTQ students' intersecting identities affect their in-school experiences, how to design professional development programs that cultivate supportive educators, and how to leverage gay–straight alliances/gender and sexuality alliances as sites of health programming for LGBTQ students.

Many studies have focused on mediated paths by which social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) predict prejudice; fewer have identified factors that moderate their effects. We applied social cognitive domain theory to test whether different ways of reasoning about antigay discriminatory acts moderated the association between SDO, RWA, and condoning antigay discrimination. Moral reasoning (e.g., emphasizing fairness, equality) and personal reasoning (e.g., emphasizing individual interests, qualifications) attenuated the association between SDO, RWA, and condoning discriminatory resource denial in general and religious-specific contexts. Conventional reasoning (e.g., emphasizing group norms, rules) magnified the association between SDO, RWA, and condoning resource denial, but only in a religious-specific context. Findings highlight the need to examine moderators of SDO and RWA effects in effort to disrupt discrimination by those most likely to engage in it.

This study investigated the relationship among adolescents’ (n = 621) reports of perpetrating sexual and gender-based harassment and their beliefs about whether these behaviors cause harm, are wrong, or are prohibited by school policies. Results evidenced that beliefs about wrongness and harm were r

Purpose – Parents are sometimes perceived as barriers to providing comprehensive and inclusive sexuality education to young people. However, little is known about parents’ actual attitudes towards providing such broad information to young people. The purpose of this paper is to examine two different approaches to measuring parents’ attitudes towards sexuality information, a programme title approach and a topic-centred approach. Design/methodology/approach – Illinois parents of adolescents (n=301) indicated their knowledge about and attitudes towards sexuality education programmes and 18 sexual health topics via online survey. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine whether parents’ attitudes were more consistent with a programme-centred (i.e. abstinence-only, comprehensive) or a topic-centred (i.e. physical health, sexual and gender identity, pleasure, and relationships) approach. Findings – Parents were uncertain about what form of sexuality education was offered but most were equally comfortable with both abstinence-only and comprehensive programmes. Parents’ ratings of topics grouped significantly better by the topic-centred than the programme-centred approach. Parents rated all four subjects as important, with the highest mean ratings given to physical health topics. Further, parents’ ratings of importance by subject matter were largely independent of their reported programming preference. Together these findings provide evidence that parents believe it is important for their children to have access to a broad range of sexual health education information. Originality/value – This study is one of the first to document parents’ support for information for young people that goes beyond being comprehensive to include topics such as identities and pleasure. In addition, parents’ lack of knowledge about sexuality education programming may obscure their support for sexual health information. Measuring support by specific topics, however, can help to overcome issues due to parents’ lack of knowledge about programming.

This chapter focuses on salient internal and external supports and challenges situated within a broader lifespan development framework for queer (e.g., queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual) emerging adults (EAs). The authors review indicators of, and disparities in, well-being, as well as the role of romantic and sexual partners, parents, family, and peer support in promoting healthy development. Challenges to positive development for queer EAs such as school harassment, lack of health-supporting education, and discriminatory laws and employment practices are reviewed alongside recent advances in rights. Research and practice recommendations for how to further improve educational and legal contexts to support the well-being of queer EAs are discussed. The developmentally situated and positive view of queer EA thriving taken in this chapter allows for the appraisal of experiences and opportunities to better support, and combat barriers to, healthy development for queer populations.

The vast majority of young people experience gender or sexuality-based harassment in schools. Effective strategies exist for addressing this problem; however, little is known about parents’ attitudes toward such safe schools policies and practices. In light of recent legislation and case law that reify parental rights over children’s lives, parents’ attitudes toward these issues represent an important focus for research and intervention. In the current study, 301 Illinois parents completed an online survey assessing their attitudes about implementing specific safe schools policies and practices as well as their knowledge about their children’s harassment experiences in schools. Results demonstrate that parents overwhelmingly support practices that protect students from harm but are somewhat more ambivalent toward those that allow children to develop and assert agency. Though some demographic differences were observed in support for safe schools policies and practices, knowledge that their child had been harassed still predicted increased parental support after controlling for demographic effects. Our findings suggest that parents should be viewed as allies, rather than opponents, in the push to implement safe schools policies and practices. In addition, parental attitudes constitute a critical pathway through which young people may be able to affect change within their schools and communities.

Previous research focused on sexual prejudice has shown that lesbian and gay adolescents are at greater risk of peer harassment and victimization than their straight counterparts. Peer victimization such as exclusion, however, may also be related to conventional expectations adolescents hold about their social environment. This study examined adolescents' (N = 1069) attitudes and reasoning about the exclusion of peers based on sexual orientation and gender nonconformity. RESULTS indicate that although participants reported it was more acceptable to exclude their gay or lesbian, as opposed to straight, peers, gender nonconformity was also a distinguishing factor. Whereas mannerism and activity nonconforming gay targets were rated less positively than similarly nonconforming straight targets, straight appearance nonconforming targets were not evaluated differently than gay appearance nonconforming targets. Further, the types of reasoning adolescents used to justify their exclusion judgments varied by sexual orientation and gender nonconformity of the target. Language: en

This article recounts how a university-community collaborative challenged prevailing assumptions about parents as barriers to the provision of gender and sexuality information to their children, allowing for the recognition of parents as critical stakeholders and partners in sexual literacy work with youth. We provide evidence that parents' support for inclusive sexuality education uniquely situates them to educate and advocate for young people around these issues, and in so doing we hope to disrupt the rhetoric that casts parents in the United States as solely gatekeepers when it comes to young people's access to information about the broad spectrum of human sexuality.

Supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming children and adolescents represents a challenge to schools and districts that are not prepared to do so. While much of the conversation focuses on the need for anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies, often what is left out are the support and accommodations necessary that allow transgender and gender-nonconforming children and adolescents to thrive, such as gender-neutral bathrooms, record keeping, name and pronoun usage, and gender-segregated activities. This chapter explores the process used by one safe schools organization in the United States to advocate for inclusive policies and the backlash that ensued when an opposition group began organizing against the passage of the policies. A summary of the process for passing the policies and subsequent organizing efforts to protect the district employee who supported the policies, along with the policies themselves, leads to implications for future organizing efforts.

There is strong recent evidence that enumerated anti-bullying and nondiscrimination policies are an important foundation for promoting school policies that support the well-being of LGBTQ and all students. To understand factors associated with the passage of US state laws that included sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) in status enumeration, the authors conducted interviews with 33 key informants who were involved in policy advocacy in states with different policy enumeration outcomes. In addition to questions about strategies used in policy advocacy, results illuminate specific effective strategies and the conditions for successful SOGI policy advocacy. Key themes related to SOGI policy advocacy across the states under consideration included the relevance and response to a state’s distinct legislative climate and history, avoidance of fiscal impact of proposed legislation, coordinated and consistent communication and messaging, and the relevance of distinct approaches to the organization, strategy, and leadership for policy advocacy.

Bullying and harassment are frequently linked to issues of bias and discrimination. ​​Bullying and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI)​ comprise some of the most common forms of harassment in schools ​and can ​affect​ the health and functioning of​​ all youth. In this chapter, the authors introduce Comprehensive School Transformation (CST), a new approach for addressing bias-motivated bullying and harassment,​​ broadly, and SOGI-related harassment, specifically​​.​​ This approach includes tailoring and coordinating efforts in seven key domains to the unique needs of each school context. The chapter includes support for the CST model and resources that schools can use to start the CST process in their contexts.

Bellinger et al. feature queer youths’ voices to illuminate the ways in which they are formally and informally sanctioned, disciplined, and pushed out of school. The authors investigate two under-explored questions: (1) how do queer youth’s experiences with school discipline relate to their intersecting identities? and (2) how are those discipline experiences connected to and/or shaped by their experiences with bullying and harassment? Three themes emerged: schools as sites of gender normativity and regulation, complex social ecologies of school discipline, and acts of resistance and self-advocacy. The authors recommend a comprehensive, contextualized approach to rectify the disparate impact of school discipline on queer youth to uncover, understand, and respond to the ways institutional and interpersonal biases (direct and implicit) play out in school communities.

This study examines the relationship between intergroup contact and adolescents' attitudes regarding homosexuality and the treatment of lesbian and gay (LG) peers. Fourteen- through 18-year-olds (n = 1,069, 59.7% females) completed self-report attitude and judgment questionnaires about the acceptability of homosexuality, levels of comfort around LG peers, and the acceptability of excluding or teasing an LG peer. The results suggest that having an LG friend is related to more positive attitudes toward homosexuals/homosexuality and less tolerance toward the unfair treatment of LG peers. The findings lend further support to intergroup contact theory and provide evidence that the intimacy of contact is related to prejudice reduction, and offer general support that age is related to prejudicial attitudes, but less so to prejudicial behaviors.

In this study, we investigated the relationships between school context and heterosexual adolescents’ social reasoning regarding same-sex sexuality and sexual prejudice. One thousand seventy-six adolescents (Female, n=648; Male, n=428) attending two high schools that differed in the degree to which they implemented practices to increase the safety and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT students) responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitudes and beliefs about homosexuality and their judgments regarding excluding and teasing lesbian, gay, and gender non-conforming peers. The results of the study suggest that safe schools practices are related to more tolerant and less stereotypical attitudes among heterosexual students; particularly regarding gay male sexuality. This study provides additional evidence that adolescents’ social reasoning about sexual prejudice is complex and multidimensional.

Within the United States, protecting the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in school elicits much controversy and debate. On one side is the argument that all students should be able to receive an education free from discrimination, harassment, and harm. On the other side is the argument that by protecting LGBT students' rights, schools are infringing on the rights of others to their individual beliefs about homosexuality. To investigate these competing arguments, we surveyed high school-aged heterosexual adolescents (N = 1,076) regarding their beliefs and attitudes about sexual orientation and the rights of gay and lesbian peers. Results suggest that adolescents differentiate between their individual beliefs about homosexuality and the rights of others to be safe in school. Further, the results provide additional support for the idea that attitudes and beliefs about sexual orientation and the rights of gay and lesbian peers are multifaceted and draw from multiple domains of social knowledge. The implications of these findings will be discussed in relation to the rights of LGBT students and the obligations that schools have to create safe and supportive learning environments for all students regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

This issue of the Journal of Social Issues presents current theory, research, and methodological considerations pertaining to “Young People's Perspectives on the Rights of the Child.” The following brief introduction charts the landscape of children's rights by outlining the purpose and goals of the issue, provides a short historical overview on the topic, sets the context for the individual articles, and highlights the recurring themes making up this issue of JSI. The authors of the articles in this issue extend current knowledge and thinking on the topic of children rights and also set the foundation for future empirical work, practice, and policy pertaining to children's rights and rights-focused research.

SUMMARY Research suggests that school experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth are overwhelmingly negative and that anti-LGBTQ violence and victimization in school lead to both acute and chronic negative developmental outcomes for these youth. The counseling psychology profession is uniquely situated to address and ameliorate these negative environments by providing training and support to school counselors on LGBT youth and prevention education. This article describes a model developed in partnership between a community-based organization and a local University to train school counselors and other educational professionals to be agents of change within their own school community toward creating safer and supportive environments for LGBTQ youth.

Attitudes toward lesbians and gays vary across national populations, and previous research has found relatively more accepting attitudes in the Netherlands as compared to the United States. In this study, we compared beliefs about and attitudes toward lesbians and gays in samples of Dutch and American heterosexual adolescents, utilizing survey data from 1,080 American adolescents (mean age = 15.86 years) attending two schools and from 1,391 Dutch adolescents (mean age = 16.27 years) attending eight schools. Findings indicated the Dutch participants were more tolerant of lesbians and gays, after adjusting for the gender, age, and racial/ethnic minority status of the participants. However, between-country differences were attenuated by accounting for the beliefs about lesbians and gays that participants used to justify their attitudes. American participants were more likely to justify their attitudes using beliefs related to social norms and religious opposition, while the Dutch participants were more likely to justify their attitudes using beliefs related to individual rights and the biological/genetic basis of homosexuality. The results suggest that the relative importance of particular beliefs about lesbians and gays to attitudes at the group level may be context dependent but also that certain beliefs are salient to attitudes across national contexts.

Reports on the school climate for gay and lesbian students in the United States suggest that negative attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals are quite common in adolescence. Very little research, however, has investigated adolescents’ sexual prejudice from a developmental perspective. In this study, 10th- ( N = 119) and 12th- ( N = 145) grade adolescents and college-aged young adults ( N = 86) completed a questionnaire assessing their beliefs and attitudes about homosexuality, their comfort with gay and lesbian students, and their judgments and reasoning regarding the treatment of gay or lesbian peers in school. Results indicate that middle adolescents (14–16) are more likely than older adolescents (16–18) and young adults (19–26) to exhibit sexual prejudice related to social interaction with gay and lesbian peers. Interestingly, however, age-related differences in beliefs about whether homosexuality was right or wrong were not found. These findings provide evidence for age-related differences in some aspects of sexual prejudice but not others and underscore the importance of using multiple measures in assessing the development of this type of prejudice.

This study investigated how social group status and group bias are related to adolescents' reasoning about social acceptance. Ninth and eleventh-grade students ( N = 379) were asked to make judgments about the inclusion of individuals in school activities based on their peer crowd membership. The results of the study revealed that both participants' and the targets' social reference group status were related to adolescents' judgments about participation in school activities. Overall, high status group members were chosen more than low status group members to participate in school activities. Adolescents who identified themselves with high status groups, however, were significantly more likely to choose a high status target than adolescents identifying with low status groups or those listing no group at all. Further, these adolescents were more likely than adolescents who identified themselves with low status groups or listed no group to use conventional reasoning and less likely to use moral reasoning when justifying their judgments.

This research investigated the contextual nature of decisions about racial exclusion by analyzing why individuals might be willing to accept members of other racial groups into some types of social relationships but nevertheless exclude them from other types of relationships. Our analysis examined the underlying reasoning processes used to make such decisions. We conducted two studies to test the types of reasoning used by young adults regarding cross-race interpersonal relationships. Study 1 (N = 292) demonstrated that racial exclusion is more likely to be condoned and justified as an issue of personal choice and less likely to be seen as an issue of overt racism in intimate than in nonintimate contexts. Study 2 (N = 196) demonstrated that participants viewed it as more wrong to exclude others from cross-race than samerace relationships and that when relationships were high (vs. low) in physical contact they were viewed as more likely to be issues of personal choice, regardless of whether they were same- or cross-race. The results help explain why there are substantial contextual differences in the extent to which exclusion of individuals based on racial group membership is perceived as acceptable.

This study investigated tenth- and twelfth-grade adolescents' ( N = 264) beliefs about homosexuality, their attitudes about gay and lesbian peers in school, and their evaluations of the treatment of gay, lesbian, and gender non-conforming peers. The results revealed differences in adolescents' beliefs about homosexuality and their attitudes toward gay and lesbian peers in school. Further, age-related and context differences in adolescents' attitudes were obtained. The results also revealed age-related difference in adolescents' evaluations of the treatment of gay, lesbian, and gender non-conforming peers. Finally, the results provide some evidence that gender non-conformity and sexuality independently and interdependently impact adolescents' evaluations of the treatment of others. The implications of these results for educators and others interested in creating schools that are safe for all students are discussed.

Ninth- and 11th-grade students (N = 379) were surveyed regarding their evaluations of excluding someone from a social group solely on the basis of his or her social reference group membership. Individuals evaluated exclusion in ambiguous and nonambiguous situations. Judgments and reasoning about exclusion were compared with judgments and reasoning about a more prototypically moral situation (denial of resources). Overall, participants evaluated exclusion as less wrong than denial of resources and used fewer moral and more conventional reasons to justify their judgments. Participants relied more on their group knowledge or stereotypes in evaluating ambiguous situations and more on their personal knowledge in evaluating nonambiguous situations. Age- and gender-related differences in evaluations, reasoning, and use of stereotypes were also found.

The purpose for this study was to investigate adolescents’judgments about the appropriate punishment of other adolescents for accused transgressions in situations where stereotype information was present or absent. Ninety-two male and 85 female, predominantly European-American, ninth-grade adolescents made judgments about the appropriateness of punishing members of social reference groups for accused transgressions about which there was no clear evidence that the students from the group actually committed the transgressions. In two of the four conditions the accused transgressions were consistent with group stereotypes whereas in the other two conditions the accused transgressions were inconsistent with group stereotypes. The majority of adolescents judged the act of punishing a group without proper evidence as wrong and used moral reasons to justify those decisions.

The authors compared the drinking behaviors, motivations, and problems of collegiate bisexual women with those of heterosexual women (N = 2,788; n = 86 bisexual women).Data came from the 2003 Student Life Survey, a random population-based survey at a large midwestern university. The authors explored the hypothesis that bisexual women would be more likely than heterosexual women to report drinking motivations related to stress and coping as a result of sexual identity stigma.They found that bisexual women drank significantly less than did heterosexual women. There were few differences between the 2 groups in drinking motivations and problems. Bisexual women reported a comparable number of problems related to their drinking but were significantly more likely to report contemplating suicide after drinking than were heterosexual women.More research is needed to understand the finding that despite lower levels of alcohol consumption, bisexual women reported a comparable number of drinking problems. College health educators and health care providers need to be aware of findings related to heightened suicidal risk among bisexual women.

This chapter reviews literature on the rates and impact of harassment and violence against gay and lesbian youth in schools across several contexts as a foundation for proposing a new theoretical framework for understanding how high school-aged youth understand sexual identity. From the perspective of domain theory, it presents results of research on young people's reasoning about homosexuality, and their treatment of their gay and lesbian peers. This theory-based analysis reveals intriguing complexities, such as young people's prejudice and intolerance toward gay or lesbian peers when they believe that individuals have control over whether they are gay or lesbian, but more accepting and tolerant attitudes regarding homosexuality when they believe people are born gay or lesbian, thus placing sexual orientation beyond the individual's control or moral culpability. The chapter also suggests future directions for research and practice to promote tolerance and development around issues of sexual identity.