Barriers to Disclosing Bias-Based Bullying for LGBT+ and Cisgender Heterosexual Adolescents

Abstract

Disclosing victimization to teachers is often presented as the best action youth can take to stop bullying. While many LGBT+ youth experience high rates of bias-based victimization, they may not disclose it due to institutional and interpersonal barriers. In Study 1, I tested a path model examining the relationships between school-level antibullying policies, staff-level intervention and discrimination, perceived safety, and disclosure for LGBT+ (n = 106) and cisgender heterosexual (CH) (n = 496) students. A multiple groups analysis revealed that for all students, staff intervention mediated the relationship between school policy and disclosure. Additionally, intervention was associated with greater perceived safety for CH students only. In Study 2, I performed a moderated regression analysis to examine the relationship between staff responses to students’ disclosure (victim affirming and victim blaming/dismissive) and wellbeing for both LGBT+ and CH students (N = 378). For all students, the victim blaming/dismissive response style was related to lower wellbeing. In addition, LGBT+ students reported lower wellbeing than CH students. Together, findings highlight how all students benefit from LGBT+-affirming school climates and results underscore the importance of addressing discrimination at the staff- and school levels.