Prevalence and Psychosocial Predictors of Homophobic Victimization among Adolescents

Abstract

Bullying and discrimination seriously damage the development and health of adolescents with non-heteronormative sexual orientation. Adolescents from sexual minorities are more likely to be the object of bullying. This research aims to know more about the prevalence, frequency, and some associated factors and predictors of homophobic victimization in adolescents, depending on their sexual orientation. A total of 820 Secondary Schools students took part in this study (average age = 14.87; SD = 1.72; 48.3% were boys and 51.7% were girls) by filling in a self-report questionnaire. The results showed that adolescents suffer homophobic victimization, regardless of their sexual orientation; however, homosexuals and bisexuals suffered it more frequently than heterosexuals. Homophobic victimization could be associated—in heterosexuals and people with doubts about their sexual orientation, positively with bullying victimization, bullying aggression and cyberbullying aggression. Homophobic victimization could be predicted—in heterosexuals, positively due to self-depreciation, and negatively due to communication and relationship skills; and in homosexuals and bisexuals, positively, because of affective empathy. The results are discussed and new lines of study and intervention are proposed.

Health-Related Quality of Life and Mental Health of Adolescents Involved in School Bullying and Homophobic Verbal Content Bullying

“…However, in the case of homophobic verbal content bullying, as far as we know, this is one of the first studies conducted in Spain assessing the prevalence of this explicit type of bullying through a specific evaluation instrument originally designed to the analysis of this type of harassment for all individuals, independently of the sexual orientation. Employing other type of measures, some studies have been recently conducted in Spain, such as the Rodríguez-Hidalgo’s and colleagues one [30]. In this study, in which authors employed an adaptation of a previous questionnaire oriented to the evaluation of traditional bullying, the prevalence of victims of homophobic bullying was of 23%.…”

“…Based on previous international research, the consequences of homophobic bullying are similar to those presented by victims who have been the target of bullying behavior [23,29]. Adolescents who are victims are more likely to experience physical and mental health problems, such as high levels of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, stress, fear, low self-esteem and self-efficacy [14,21,29,30]. However, the impact on victims and aggressors may vary depending on the specific form of bullying experienced [29,31,32].…”

Prevalence and psychosocial predictors of cyberaggression and cybervictimization in adolescents: A Spain-Ecuador transcultural study on cyberbullying

“…Cyberbullying is associated with some psychological, social, educational, health and family problems that extend to those involved in the phenomena [3,[14][15][16][17][18]. However, at a greater extent, cybervictims may suffer discrimination among peers, depression, aggressiveness, anxiety, fear, somatic disorders, deterioration of self-esteem, academic problems, substance use, and suicidal attempts and ideation [15,17,19,20].…”

The Impact of Personal Values, Gender Stereotypes, and School Climate on Homophobic Bullying: a Multilevel Analysis

“…Research found that HB is highly frequent in school contexts, and sexual minority youth experience bullying two times more than their heterosexual peers (Earnshaw et al, 2018). Overall, HB has a prevalence ranging from 22 to 87% (Rodríguez-Hidalgo & Hurtado-Mellado, 2019). Males are generally reported to be more frequently involved than females in HB (Orue & Calvete, 2018;Poteat & DiGiovanni, 2010).…”

“…Thus, peers whose behavior or appearance do not fit into the culturally dominant models of masculinity and femininity are perceived as deviating from socially accepted gender norms, and deserve, for this reason, to be punished and stigmatized . As being perceived as deviating from gender norms is enough for being stigmatized in a context where homophobia is deeply rooted, not only homosexual youth are at risk of homophobic bullying but also those who are thought to be so, or have homosexual or gender non-conforming friends, or are perceived as different in some ways (Rodríguez-Hidalgo & Hurtado-Mellado, 2019). Regardless of their actual sexual identity, youth that experience harassment based on actual or perceived sexual orientation find it particularly distressing (Swearer, Turner, Givens, & Pollack, 2008).…”