The bullying of sexual minorities at school: Its nature and long-term correlates

By I. Rivers. Educational & Child Psychology, 2001

249 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Over the past 10 years, there has been a great deal of research activity exploring the nature and frequency of peer victimisation and bullying behaviour. This paper reports on a three-year study focusing upon the experiences of a sample of lesbians, gay men and bisexual men and women who were bullied at school, and the long-term impact it has had upon their lives. Data collection consisted of three elements: A survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered adults’ experiences of bullying at school (N = 190); a survey of the psycho-social correlates and long-term effects of bullying with a sub-sample of 119 participants; and, finally, a small number of in-depth interviews with 16 participants. Participants’ experiences of bullying in school were long-term (mean: 5 years) systematic, and were perpetrated by groups of peers rather than by individuals. Participants were unlikely to report incidents of bullying either to teachers or to someone at home. In the survey of psychosocial correlates and long-term effects over 50 per cent of participants reported contemplating self-harming behaviour or suicide with 40 per cent making one or more attempts. As adults, they were found to exhibit some symptoms associated with negative affect when compared to controls. However, participants did not suffer from low self-esteem and had a positive attitude towards their own homosexuality/bisexuality and homosexuality/bisexuality generally.

Subfields: Health, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/077518bd44d21ef3dd71bd0c2a0b3c76180cebe7

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Citations in the corpus

The theoretical and empirical links between bullying behavior and male sexual violence perpetration (2009, background): “Rivers (2001) reported that name-”
Measuring Bullying Victimization, Perpetration, and Bystander Experiences: A Compendium of Assessment Tools (2014, background): “Much of the research on homophobic bullying focuses on homosexual respondents (e.g., Rivers, 2001); less research investigates its use among heterosexual respondents, who are also likely victims of homophobic bullying (e.g., Kimmel & Mahler, 2003).”
Gender-nonconforming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth: school victimization and young adult psychosocial adjustment. (2010, background): “Not only does victimization affect students emotionally at the time it occurs, victimization also negatively affects future psychosocial adjustment (Olweus, 1993; Rivers, 2001a).”
Homophobic Teasing, Psychological Outcomes, and Sexual Orientation Among High School Students: What Influence Do Parents and Schools Have? (2008, background): “…have been conducted examining the role of homophobia in aggressive behavior (Kimmel & Mahler, 2003; Phoenix, Frosh, & Pattman, 2003; Plummer, 2001; Rivers, 2001), there are few quantitative studies that have examined the relation between homophobic verbal content and bullying among high school…”
Exploring the Relation Between Bullying and Homophobic Verbal Content: The Homophobic Content Agent Target (HCAT) Scale (2005, background): “Rivers (2001) reported that name-calling, assault, and teasing were frequent forms of bullying experienced by gay and lesbian students (82%, 60%, and 58%, respectively), and that a majority of the name calling was homophobic in nature.”
Bullying surveillance among youths : uniform definitions for public health and recommended data elements, Version 1.0 (2014, background): “Tracking bullying by sexual orientation is important because youths who are lesbian, gay, or bisexual report higher levels of physical, verbal, and relational aggression and bullying (Rivers, 2001).”
A review of research on bullying and peer victimization in school: An ecological system analysis☆ (2012, background): “In addition, Rivers (2001) reported that 82% of British LGBT students reported name-calling with a majority of it being homophobic in nature and 60% reported being assaulted.”
Forgiveness as a Coping Strategy to Allow School Students to Deal With the Effects of Being Bullied: Theoretical and Empirical Discussion (2009, unknown): “, & Rivers, I. (2004). Psychology’s contribution to understanding”
Addressing Research Gaps in the Intersection Between Homophobia and Bullying (2008, background): “, 2008) and homosexual youth (Rivers & Noret, 2008), and greater drug/alcohol use was found for youth questioning or those attracted to their same-sex peers (Espelage et al., 2008; Rivers & Noret, 2008). However, these studies move beyond group differences to explicate potential buffering or exacerb”
The use of homophobic language across bullying roles during adolescence (2010, background): “, as studies in the United Kingdom also have documented the homophobic nature of bullying among students (Rivers, 2001; Thurlow, 2001).”
The Influence of Peer Victimization on Educational Outcomes for LGBTQ and Non-LGBTQ High School Students (2014, methodology): “This hypothesis was based on findings in the psychological literature of psychosocial concerns among LGBT youth (Coker et al., 2010; Espelage et al., 2008; Nichols, 1999; Poteat et al., 2011; Rivers, 2001), the rates of victimization among LGBT youth (Kosciw et al.”
Contextual and Moderating Effects of the Peer Group Climate on Use of Homophobic Epithets (2008, background): “Psychological consequences experienced by lesbian and gay students have included higher self-reported levels of depressed mood, anxiety, and distress (D'Augelli et al., 2002; Rivers, 2001).”
Well-Being Among Same-Sex- and Opposite-Sex-Attracted Youth at School (2008, background): “…for this version of the inventory indicates general stability of recall in retrospective studies over periods of up to 12–14 months for GLB samples (Rivers, 2001b), with various youth studies reporting reliability coefficients and concordance rates with peer nominations for composite scores…”
What Can Be Done About School Bullying? (2010, background): “Many LGBT students also report experiencing victimization while at school, including physical and verbal harassment, isolation and stigmatization, and physical assault (Kosciw, Diaz, & Greytak, 2008; Rivers, 2001). In a recent survey of LGBT youth, approximately 85% reported experiencing some form o”
Predicting Psychosocial Consequences of Homophobic Victimization in Middle School Students (2007, background): “…is one prominent way in which homophobia is expressed and enacted among students and that various forms of aggression often include homophobic themes and references (Kosciw, 2004; Phoenix, Frosh, & Pattman, 2003; Pilkington & D’Augelli, 1995; Plummer, 2001; Poteat & Espelage, 2005b; Rivers, 2001).”
Psychology's Contribution to Understanding and Managing Bullying within Schools (2004, background): “…linked to both absenteeism and poor school performance, and that those students with a history of absenteeism or exhibiting a general decline in the standard of class and homework may be the `̀ victims'' of a more insidious form of bullying that they ®nd dif®cult to articulate (Rivers, 2001).”