Adolescents' Judgment of Homophobic Name-Calling: The Role of Peer/Friend Context and Emotional Response.

Adolescents use some types of homophobic language (e.g., "that's so gay") as a form of banter, while other types are directly targeted as an intentional insult (e.g., calling someone a "fag, dyke, homo"). Little research has investigated adolescents' use and judgments about these types of homophobic language and whether judgments differ if they are used among friends or directed toward non-friend peers. This study investigated how relationship context and victim's (N = 477, Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.63) emotional responses related to judgments about anti-gay banter and homophobic name-calling. Adolescents evaluated homophobic name-calling as more wrong than anti-gay banter. While adolescents' evaluations of homophobic name-calling did not differ based on relationship context, adolescents did differentiate between anti-gay banter perpetrated by a friend vs. a peer. Further, emotional responses mediated these relationships in the anti-gay banter situation. These results suggest that adolescents' judgments about homophobic language are related to the relationship context and the type of homophobic language used.

Bullied and Punished: Exploring the Links between Bullying and Discipline for Sexual and Gender Minority Youth.

This study investigated connections between sexual and gender minority youths' (SGMY) experiences with bullying victimization and their experiences with punishment. We interviewed 20 diverse adolescents (X = 18.45) about their experiences with bullying and school discipline. Using a qualitative mapping technique, we analyzed the pathways between victimization and punishment that emerged from our participants' narratives. Our analyses revealed that among the adolescents who had experienced victimization related to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (or expression) (n = 17), most of them (n = 15) had also experienced punishment connected to their victimization. We identified five pathways linking victimization and bullying. Further, we found that the majority of participants were navigating school contexts rife with pervasive and ongoing harassment and that adults ineffectively intervened and often compounded the harm experienced.

Strengthening Our Schools to Promote Resilience and Health Among LGBTQ Youth: Emerging Evidence and Research Priorities from The State of LGBTQ Youth Health and Wellbeing Symposium.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) adolescents face well-documented health disparities in suicide risk, substance use, and sexual health. These disparities are known to stem, in part, from stigma directed toward LGBTQ youth in the form of minority stressors such as violence, discrimination, and harassment. Given the proportion of time that LGBTQ students spend in school, schools provide a critical context within which protective factors may be developed and leveraged to improve the health and wellbeing of these populations. This article provides a summary of key findings from a discussion among researchers, practitioners, and community members who participated in "The State of LGBTQ Youth Health and Wellbeing: Strengthening Schools and Families to Build Resilience," a public symposium held in June 2017. We detail emerging science on and future priorities for school-based research with LGBTQ youth which were identified by attendees at this meeting, with a particular focus on intersectionality, supportive adults in schools, and in-school programs. We call for more school-based research on priority gaps such as how LGBTQ students' intersecting identities affect their in-school experiences, how to design professional development programs that cultivate supportive educators, and how to leverage gay-straight alliances/gender and sexuality alliances as sites of health programming for LGBTQ students.

Attitudes toward lesbians and gays among American and Dutch adolescents.

Attitudes toward lesbians and gays vary across national populations, and previous research has found relatively more accepting attitudes in the Netherlands as compared to the United States. In this study, we compared beliefs about and attitudes toward lesbians and gays in samples of Dutch and American heterosexual adolescents, utilizing survey data from 1,080 American adolescents (mean age = 15.86 years) attending two schools and from 1,391 Dutch adolescents (mean age = 16.27 years) attending eight schools. Findings indicated the Dutch participants were more tolerant of lesbians and gays, after adjusting for the gender, age, and racial/ethnic minority status of the participants. However, between-country differences were attenuated by accounting for the beliefs about lesbians and gays that participants used to justify their attitudes. American participants were more likely to justify their attitudes using beliefs related to social norms and religious opposition, while the Dutch participants were more likely to justify their attitudes using beliefs related to individual rights and the biological/genetic basis of homosexuality. The results suggest that the relative importance of particular beliefs about lesbians and gays to attitudes at the group level may be context dependent but also that certain beliefs are salient to attitudes across national contexts.

No puede evitarlo, naci así. Las creencias de los adolescentes sobre el origen de la homosexualidad y el prejuicio sexual / She can not help it, she was born that way: Adolescents¡ beliefs about the origins of homosexuality and sexual prejudice

En este trabajo se examinaron las creencias de los adolescentes (N=1069) sobre el origen de la homosexualidad y cómo estas creencias se relacionan con sus juicios y razonamientos acerca de la homosexualidad, su grado de bienestar al interactuar con adolescentes gays y lesbianas, y sus juicios y razonamiento sobre la manera en que deben ser tratados. A partir del análisis de clases latente se establecieron cuatro perfiles sobre las creencias acerca del origen de la homosexualidad: elección/socialización temprana, elección, socialización y origen biológico. Los resultados muestran que los adolescentes que se basan en la socialización para explicar el origen de la homosexualidad tienden a evaluarla negativamente, se sienten menos cómodos al interactuar con iguales gays y lesbianas, y no suelen considerar que la exclusión y las burlas hacia gays y lesbianas sean algo negativo. En cambio, los adolescentes que utilizan argumentos biológicos tienden en menor medida a evaluar la homosexualidad como algo negativo, se sienten más cómodos al interactuar con gays y lesbianas y es más probable que evalúen la exclusión y las burlas como algo negativo. Además, los resultados muestran que las creencias sobre el origen se relacionan también con el tipo de razonamiento (moral, convencional, personal) que emplean los adolescentes ante estas cuestiones (AU)

This paper examined differences in American adolescents (n = 1069) beliefs about the origins of homosexuality and how these beliefs related to adolescents judgments and reasoning about homosexuality, their comfort interacting with lesbian and gay peers, and their judgments and reasoning about the treatment of lesbian and gay peers. Using Latent Class Analysis four origins cluster profiles were determined (choice/early socialization, choice, socialization, and biological). Results provide evidence that adolescents endorsing socialization beliefs about the origins of homosexuality were more likely to evaluate homosexuality as wrong, least comfortable interacting with lesbian and gay peers, and least likely to evaluate exclusion and teasing a lesbian or gay peer as wrong. Conversely, adolescent endorsing biological beliefs were least likely to evaluation homosexuality as wrong, most comfortable interacting with lesbian and gay peers, and most likely to evaluate exclusion and teasing as wrong. Further, the results provide evidence that origins beliefs were also related to the type of reasoning (moral, conventional, personal) that adolescents bring to bear on these issues (AU)

Intergroup contact and beliefs about homosexuality in adolescence.

This study examines the relationship between intergroup contact and adolescents' attitudes regarding homosexuality and the treatment of lesbian and gay (LG) peers. Fourteen- through 18-year-olds (n = 1,069, 59.7% females) completed self-report attitude and judgment questionnaires about the acceptability of homosexuality, levels of comfort around LG peers, and the acceptability of excluding or teasing an LG peer. The results suggest that having an LG friend is related to more positive attitudes toward homosexuals/homosexuality and less tolerance toward the unfair treatment of LG peers. The findings lend further support to intergroup contact theory and provide evidence that the intimacy of contact is related to prejudice reduction, and offer general support that age is related to prejudicial attitudes, but less so to prejudicial behaviors.

Adolescents' reasoning about exclusion from social groups.

Ninth- and 11th-grade students (N = 379) were surveyed regarding their evaluations of excluding someone from a social group solely on the basis of his or her social reference group membership. Individuals evaluated exclusion in ambiguous and nonambiguous situations. Judgments and reasoning about exclusion were compared with judgments and reasoning about a more prototypically moral situation (denial of resources). Overall, participants evaluated exclusion as less wrong than denial of resources and used fewer moral and more conventional reasons to justify their judgments. Participants relied more on their group knowledge or stereotypes in evaluating ambiguous situations and more on their personal knowledge in evaluating nonambiguous situations. Age- and gender-related differences in evaluations, reasoning, and use of stereotypes were also found.