Depression in High School: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Identity as a Moderator of Sexual Assault

Abstract

BACKGROUND Depression continues to be a public health crisis for young adults. For high school students, past research has identified trauma as a significant predictor of depression. Congruent with the theory of cumulative stress, the present study hypothesized that the effect of sexual assault on depression would be stronger among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) students than among their straight peers. METHODS Using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey completed by students attending Duval County Public Schools in Florida (N = 3053), this study used secondary data analysis to conduct 2 regression analyses, one for boys and one for girls. RESULTS LGB status was associated with 3‐fold increase in the odds of reporting depression for both boys and girls. History of sexual assault was associated with a significant increase in reporting depression. There was also a significant interaction effect between sexual orientation and history of sexual assault among male students only (p < .05). Contrary to the hypothesis, the effect was stronger among straight boys than among LGB boys. CONCLUSION Minority students continue to evidence greater risks for depression. Opportunities for systemic changes to address these include training teachers, banning conversion therapy, and implementing comprehensive sex education.

Sexual violence against Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender

“…Sexual violence is associated with mental disorders and physical health outcomes, including increased susceptibility to HIV/STI infection (Hladik et al, 2012;Rusow et al, 2014). The impacts of sexual violence found in this review include: distress in the form of problems in learning; problems in friendship and family relationships; create a hostile environment; emergence of resentment; angry; less confident; worry; depression; increase unprotected sex; HIV/AIDS risk (Miller et al, 2013;Semple et al, 2017;Smith et al, 2020;Zeglin et al, 2020). LGB status increased the risk of depression 3 times compared to students with normal sexual orientation.…”

The Development of Homosexual Tendencies's Inventory

“…From the content point of view, the researcher asked guidance and counseling experts to assess the appropriateness of the instrument content to the theoretical basis. Then the construct validity stage was carried out by distributing the instrument to respondents (high school students), (Jarpe-Ratner, 2020; Olsen, Vivolo-Kantor, & Kann, 2020;Zeglin, Terrell, Barr, & Moore, 2020).…”

Social Media's Impact on Rape Myth Acceptance and Negative Affect in College Women: Examining the #MeToo and #HimToo Movement

“…Sexual trauma, for this study, is defined as being forced to engage in an unwanted sexual activity either in adulthood or childhood. Sexual trauma has been associated with many adverse health outcomes such as depression (Zeglin et al, 2020), substance use disorder (Yalch et al, 2018), disordered eating (Ackard & Neumark-Sztainer, 2002), and posttraumatic stress symptoms (Liu et al, 2017). Unfortunately, sexual trauma survivors may also be adversely affected by exposure to rape myths, which are often expressed in public forums such as social media.…”