Original article
Effects of at-school victimization and sexual orientation on lesbian, gay, or bisexual youths’ health risk behavior

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(01)00415-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To examine the link between victimization at school and health risk behaviors using representative data comparing lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youths and heterosexual youths.

Methods: Data from the 1995 Youth Risk Behavior Survey taken in Massachusetts and Vermont were examined. This sample included 9188 9th through 12th grade students; 315 of these students were identified as LGB. Analyses of variance were used to examine health risk behaviors by sexual orientation by gender by victimization level.

Results: The combined effect of LGB status and high levels of at-school victimization was associated with the highest levels of health risk behaviors. LGB youths reporting high levels of at-school victimization reported higher levels of substance use, suicidality, and sexual risk behaviors than heterosexual peers reporting high levels of at-school victimization. Also, LGB youths reporting low levels of at-school victimization reported levels of substance use, suicidality, and sexual-risk behaviors that were similar to heterosexual peers who reported low at-school victimization.

Conclusions: The findings provide evidence that differences in health risks among LGB youth are mediated by victimization at school. Such victimization of LGB youth is associated with health risk behaviors.

Section snippets

Methods

Data used in the present study combined information from the 1995 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MYRBS) and the 1995 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior Survey (VYRBS). This combined sample included 9188 9th- through 12th-grade students; 315 of these students either self-identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning (LGBQ) or were categorized as LGB on the basis of their reported sexual behaviors. This relatively large sample allowed for analysis by sexual orientation, gender, and

Results

To ascertain that it was reasonable to combine the Massachusetts and Vermont data, two strategies were employed. First, relevant sociodemographic characteristics and the health risk indices used in subsequent analyses were compared by state (Table 1). Second, key analyses were initially conducted separately for each state and compared for similar patterns of results. Within-state results were similar to results derived from the combined data.

Tabulation of relevant variables by state showed few

Discussion

All three hypotheses were supported. Consistent with previous studies 5, 6, victimization at school was disproportionately associated with LGBQ status. Second, LGBQ youths experiencing low levels of victimization at school were found to be similar to their heterosexual peers. Third, LGBQ youths in the high-victimization group evidenced substantially more health risk behavior, compared with heterosexual youths in the high-victimization group. Moreover, these associations are likely to be

Acknowledgements

We thank the Massachusetts Department of Education and Carol Goodenow for access to the 1995 MYRBS data. We also thank the Vermont Department of Health and Kelly Hale-Lamonda for access to the 1995 VYRBS data.

The completion of this research was facilitated by Grant RO1-58155 to the second author.

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