Age Trends in Sexual-Orientation-Related Disparities in Homophobic Bullying and its Association With Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: 3-091 - Methodological Advances in Sexual Minority Youth Research: Developmental and Longitudinal Findings

Integrative Statement

Improved social attitudes towards lesbian, gay, and bisexual people encourage modern cohorts of sexual minority youth to “come out” (i.e., disclosure their gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning sexual orientation) at younger ages. The declining age of coming out, however, now coincides with a developmental period characterized by greater peer regulation of sexuality and youths’ heightened sensitivity to peer attitudes (Russell & Fish, 2016). Indeed, studies document that youths’ social reasoning improves as adolescents age into adulthood (Horn, 2006) and studies document decline in homophobic bullying after middle school (Robinson et al., 2013). This “developmental collision” leaves modern-day sexual minority youth vulnerable to the same sexual-orientation-related mental and behavioral health disparities evidenced by the generations before them. To demonstrate these experiences, we test age-specific differences in school-based homophobic bullying between heterosexual and sexual minority youth by sex, and the subsequent association with past-year depressive symptoms.
Method. We use cross-sectional data from the 2013 and 2015 biennial California Health Kids Survey (CHKS), a state-wide, school-based survey administered to students in grades 7, 9, and 11 (n = 688,696; 5.2% sexual minority). Youth indicated the frequency of past-year bullying related to their actual or perceived sexual identity (0 times = 0, 4 or more times = 3). In a step-wise fashion, regression models were used to test prevalence of past-year homophobic bullying among heterosexual and sexual minority youth for each age year using interactions between sex, sexual identity, and age. Age-specific estimates of sexual-orientation-related disparities in homophobic bullying and its association with depressive symptoms were calculated using sex-stratified models with interaction terms between homophobic bullying, age, and sexual identity. Analyses were design adjusted and included race/ethnicity and parental education as covariates.
Results. Overall, sexual minority youth reported more frequent incidents of homophobic bullying, although the degree of difference between sexual minority and heterosexual youth varied by age and sex. Sexual-orientation-related differences in past-year homophobic bullying were present as early as age 10 (see Figure 1) and persisted until age 17. Sexual minority girls and boys did not statistically differ in their experiences of homophobic bullying until age 14, where sexual minority boys reported greater incidence of past-year homophobic bullying than sexual minority girls. Generally, depressive symptomology was positively associated with age for all youth, however the association between homophobic bullying varied by sexual minority status, sex, and age (see Figure 2), whereby homophobic bullying was most strongly associated with past-year depressive symptoms for sexual minority relative to heterosexual youth.
Discussion. Results suggest that experiences with homophobic bullying vary appreciably by age and systematically across youth who do and do not identify as sexual minorities. Findings suggest that disparities in homophobic bullying are present before age 10 and that the effect of homophobic bullying on depressive symptoms strengthens with age. These results challenge a popular sentiment that social climates have improved for sexual minority youth. Implications for research and application will be discussed.

Authors

• Jessica N. Fish, University of Maryland College Park
  Presenting Author

• Stephen T. Russell, University of Texas at Austin
  Non-Presenting Author