School Victimization of LGBT Youth Linked with Depression

School Victimization of Gender-Nonconforming LGBT Youth Linked with Depression
and Quality Of Life In Adulthood:

Researchers: Russell B. Toomey of The University of Arizona, Caitlin Ryan and Rafael M. Diaz of San Francisco State University, Noel A. Card and Stephen T. Russell of The University of
Arizona

Developmental Psychology © 2010
American Psychological Association
2010, Vol. 46, No. 6, 1580 –1589
0012-1649/10/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0020705

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ABSTRACT:
Past research documents that both adolescent gender nonconformity and the experience of school victimization are associated with high rates of negative psychosocial adjustment. Using data from the Family Acceptance Project’s young adult survey, we examined associations among retrospective reports of adolescent gender nonconformity and adolescent school
victimization due to perceived or actual lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) status, along with current reports of life satisfaction and depression. The participants included 245
LGBT young adults ranging in age from 21 to 25 years. Using structural equation modeling, we found that victimization due to perceived or actual LGBT status fully mediates the association between adolescent gender nonconformity and young adult psychosocial adjustment (i.e., life satisfaction and depression). Implications are addressed, including specific strategies that schools can implement to provide safer environments for gender-nonconforming LGBT students.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the limitations, this study contributes new knowledge about the negative impact school victimization has for young adult well-being among gender-nonconforming LGBT young
adults. Specifically, the direct effect of adolescent gender nonconformity on young adult adjustment was fully mediated by the experience of victimization. This finding is particularly
important when framed in the context of the murder of Larry King (Pringle & Saillant, 2008). We acknowledge that this is only one recent example, but the media attention it received highlights growing public concern about the most extreme form of victimization that LGBT and gendernonconforming youth experience in school. King’s brutal experience with victimization because of his sexual orientation and gender nonconformity ended with his teenage murder, but our findings indicate that the experience of victimization has lasting consequences that fully account for any previous association between gender nonconformity and young adult adjustment.

Prior to this study, the authors are aware of no other studies that have attempted to examine simultaneously the associations between gender nonconformity, LGBT school victimization,
young adult depression, and life satisfaction. The results of this study warrant future research to examine other factors that may be crucial in the lives of LGBT youth in preventing negative psychosocial outcomes. For instance, what other factors influence the association between victimization and psychosocial outcomes: family acceptance, family rejection, peer support, or other life situations (e.g., socioeconomic status, quality of other relation- ships, personality factors)? Finally, future research should examine the school context to gain a deeper understanding of effective protective measures that schools use to prevent the victimization and harassment of LGBT and gender-nonconforming students.

Keywords: gender nonconformity, LGBT youth, victimization, safe schools