Original articleLongitudinal Associations of Homophobic Name-Calling Victimization With Psychological Distress and Alcohol Use During Adolescence
Section snippets
Participants
Students enrolled in three midwestern public high schools were invited to complete in-school surveys in Spring 2012 (Wave 1) and Spring 2013 (Wave 2) for a study on social networks and adolescent risk behavior. The Wave 1 survey was completed by 2,009 9th–11th grade students; of those who completed Wave 1, 1,420 students (70.68%) also completed the Wave 2 survey. Those who completed Wave 1 only tended to be slightly older (mean [M] = 15.97, standard deviation = 1.01, p < .001) and were more
Results
Table 1 compares heterosexual and LGB students on baseline rates of victimization, psychological distress, alcohol use, social marginalization, and demographic characteristics. Results indicate that LGB students reported significantly more homophobic victimization (from both friends and nonfriends) and aggression victimization. On average, LGB students reported significantly more depressive symptoms and had significantly lower peer-nominated popularity than heterosexual students, as well as
Discussion
Given the pervasiveness of homophobic name-calling during adolescence, it may be easy to dismiss these behaviors and commentary as harmless banter. However, the use of homophobic epithets is strongly associated with bullying behavior [23], and its effects can be far from benign for youth who are on the receiving end. Prior research has shown that being the target of homophobic epithets is associated with higher psychological distress [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]. To the best of our
Funding Sources
Work on this article was supported by grant R01DA033280-01 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (PI: Harold D. Green). This research uses data from grant # 2011-90948-IL-IJ from the National Institute of Justice (PI: Dorothy Espelage).
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