20 Mar LGBTQ+ Youth Not As Safe At School As We Like To Think
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tasseli McKay
Tasseli McKay, MPH
Violence and Victimization Research Program Center for Justice, Safety and Resilience
RTI International
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Prompted by a mass murder of LGBTQ+ individuals in Orlando in 2016 and a range of pending legislation affecting LGBTQ+ communities, RTI researchers analyzed 20 years’ worth of published studies on violence and LGBTQ+ communities. The systematic review identified patterns of evidence across 102 peer-reviewed studies as well as a few unpublished analyses and non-peer-reviewed papers. With The Henne Group, RTI also carried out a series of focus-group discussions to elicit the perspectives of members of LGBTQ+ communities on the violence and victimization issues identified in the review. These were conducted with LGBTQ+ communities in San Francisco; New York City; Durham, North Carolina; and rural Wyoming.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: We found good evidence that LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely than non-LGBTQ+ individuals to be victims of various forms of violence and victimization, including physical and sexual assault, harassment, bullying, and hate crimes. This is why reading articles such as this LGBTQ dating safety guide, is really useful. LGBTQ+ persons experience violence and victimization in disproportionate numbers across the life course—from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. This has serious, lifelong impacts on the physical and behavioral health of LGBTQ+ youth and adults. One of our most surprising findings has to do with temporal trends in victimization. Despite the perception that society is becoming more open and welcoming of LGBTQ+ persons, victimization disparities have not improved since the 1990s (when they were first measured). Some forms of victimization, particularly those affecting youth, appear to be worsening.
It’s also clear that LGBTQ+ young people are not as safe at school as we might like to think. Physical and verbal victimization of LGBTQ+ students during the school day is commonplace, and evidence indicates that school-based victimization erodes young people’s feelings of safety in school, diminishes attendance and academic achievement, and steeply increases their risk of suicide. And—contradicting the conventional image of “hate crime” as perpetrated by strangers or acquaintances—bias-related verbal, physical, and sexual victimization by close family members (particularly parents and the male partners of bisexual women) is partly responsible for overall higher victimization rates among LGBTQ+ individuals.
Our review also identified some significant limitations in prior research methods. The concepts that are central to understanding these issues— sexual orientation and gender as well as the various forms of violence and abuse—have been defined and measured in different (and sometimes weak) ways in prior research. Many studies treated gender as a single, dichotomous variable (male or female) and did not include any measure at all of gender minority status. Other studies used incomplete and conceptually overlapping measures of sexual orientation, gender, and certain forms of victimization such as sexual assault. These measurement issues make study findings less valid and more difficult to compare. In addition, many of the studies we reviewed were subject to design limitations that impact the validity of the estimates. These include issues with how research participants were selected, how many individuals were included, and whether the study collected data over time or at a single point. These considerations affect how well a particular study can answer its research questions, and also limit the ability to compare estimates across studies.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: Despite some methodological limitations, the evidence we reviewed strongly suggests that widespread victimization of LGBTQ+ individuals is an urgent issue affecting public education, public safety, and public health. Policy efforts to protect society’s most vulnerable might include a focus on preventing the further victimization of LGBTQ+ individuals, particularly young people in schools. Potential programmatic supports and policy remedies could include: (1) Creating safer environments for youth—at home, at school, and beyond; (2) Improving and expanding resources for LGBTQ+ victims; (3) Addressing public, institutional, and organizational policies that reinforce a broader culture of anti-LGBTQ+ bias and discrimination.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Future studies should focus on applying more rigorous methods and measures to areas with direct relevance for policy and intervention, such as: (1) Describing changes in victimization and perpetration experiences over time and across the life course; (2) Understanding how fear of victimization may shape LGBTQ+ individuals’ life choices and life chances; and (3) Identifying key mechanisms and subgroup differences in victimization risk and impact within LGBTQ+ communities.
Our full report is available at http://www.rti.org/lgbtq.
We have no conflicts of interest or outside funding to disclose. This work was internally funded by RTI International.
MedicalResearch.com: Thank you for your contribution to the MedicalResearch.com community.
Citation:
Violence and LGBTQ+ Communities What Do We Know, and What Do We Need to Know? March 2017 Tasseli McKay, Shilpi Misra, and Christine Lindquist
https://www.rti.org/sites/default/files/rti_violence_and_lgbtq_communities.pdf
Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.
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Last Updated on March 20, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD