Age Trends in Bias-based Bullying and Mental Health by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Prev Sci
• Personal Author:
  Fish, Jessica N. ; Bishop, Meg D. ; Russell, Stephen T.
• Description:
  Disparities in mental health and bullying between SGM youth and their heterosexual, cisgender peers are well-established. There remain questions about whether the onset and progression of these disparities differ across adolescence-knowledge critical for screening, prevention, and intervention. To address this, the current study estimates age-based patterns of homophobic bullying, gender-based bullying, and mental health across groups of adolescents defined by sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Data are from the 2013-2015 cycle of the California Healthy Kids Survey (n = 728,204). We estimated the age-specific prevalence rates of past-year homophobic bullying, gender-based bullying, and depressive symptoms using three- and two-way interactions by (1) age, sex, and sexual identity and (2) age and gender identity, respectively. We also tested how adjustments for bias-based bullying alter predicted prevalence rates of past-year mental health symptoms. Results showed that SOGI differences in homophobic bullying, gender-based bullying, and mental health were already present among youth aged 11 and younger. SOGI differences by age were attenuated when adjusting models for homophobic and gender-based bullying, particularly among transgender youth. SOGI-related bias-based bullying and mental health disparities were present early and generally persisted throughout adolescence. Strategies that prevent exposure to homophobic and gender-based bullying would significantly reduce SOGI-related disparities in mental health across adolescence.
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Bullying Female Gender Identity Heterosexuality Humans Male Mental Health Self Concept
• Source:
  Prev Sci. 24(6):1142-1151
• Pubmed ID:
  37148493
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC11312111
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  P2C HD042849/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; P2C HD041041/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; F32 AA030194/AA/NIAAA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; T32 HD007081/HD/NICHD NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U48 DP006382/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  24
• Issue:
  6
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a4660f6de424d69d972a59f600e7d62bd8a833b8dfd1692c98eaadb2919215ce61f6d2559512a1ea075a74be78af10aef39df8c7c761d17cc4ab07742a47145f
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/159788/cdc_159788_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 909.95 KB ]