Prosocial Behavior Among Gender Minority Students: The Role of School Climate

• In Event: The School-Based Peer Context of Sexual and Gender Minority Adolescents: International and U.S. Perspectives

Abstract

Background. Gender minority youth (i.e., youth with gender identities other than the sex they were assigned at birth, such as transgender or non-binary youth) face significant barriers within educational systems (Eisenberg et al., 2017; McGuire et al., 2010; Pampati et al., 2018), including in Brazil (Fontanari et al., 2019). Indeed, Brazil has been identified as among the most dangerous countries for gender minority individuals (Transgender Europe & Balzer, 2019). Despite these challenges, many gender minority youth in Brazil survive and thrive, underscoring the importance of understanding the factors associated with positive outcomes among this population. Prosocial behaviors are a wide range of behaviors that are broadly understood to benefit others (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998). Understanding the factors associated with the prosocial behavior are important, as youth who report higher levels of prosocial behaviors are more likely to report a variety of positive outcomes across the life course (Padilla-Walker et al., 2015), and more specifically because of the potential protective role of prosocial behavior with regards to discrimination (Davis et al., 2016). While many factors contribute to the development of prosocial behavior, school climate may be one important factor for understanding prosocial behavior (O’Brennan et al., 2014).
Objective. The objective of the current study was to better understand how different dimensions of school climate were associated with prosocial behavior among gender minority youth attending public high schools in Paraná, Brazil.
Method. Public high school students (ages 12-18) completed an in-class survey. Of the students that participated, 272 (2.5%) reported gender identities different from their sex assigned at birth (62 reported masculine identities, 25 reported feminine identities, 46 reported travesti or transexuel identities, and 139 reported having another gender identity than those presented). Students also completed assessments of school climate assessing student-teacher relationships, student-student relationships, school-level engagement, school racial climate and school rule fairness and clarity. Finally, participants also completed an assessment of their own prosocial behavior.
Results. Preliminary analyses indicated no significant differences between gender minority identity groups in terms of prosocial behavior or school climate variables. Bivariate correlations indicated that higher levels of prosocial behavior was positively associated with all indicators of school climate (i.e., student-teacher relationships, student-student relationships, school-level engagement, school racial climate and school rule fairness and clarity) among gender minority youth. When all school climate indicators were examined simultaneously, and age, race/ethnicity, living situation and parental education were controlled, only higher levels of student-student relationships were associated with higher levels of prosocial behavior.
Discussion. These findings suggest that while prosocial behavior is associated with numerous aspects of school climate, youth’s perceptions of the peer climate may be particularly important for understanding their prosocial behavior. Future research may expand on these results by examining how the school climate perceptions of other students, as well as gender minority youth, may inform their prosocial behaviors. These findings have implications in terms of how improving the peer environment for gender minority youth may promote this positive and adaptive pattern of behaviors.

Authors

• Alexa Martin-Storey, Universite de Sherbrooke
  Presenting Author

• Jonathan Bruce Santo, University of Nebraska - Omaha
  Non-Presenting Author

• Josafá M. Da Cunha, Federal University of Parana
  Non-Presenting Author