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Gay-Straight Alliances are Associated with Lower Levels of School-Based Victimization of LGBTQ+ Youth: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

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Robert A. Marx
Robert A. Marx
Robert A. Marx
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Heather Hensman Kettrey at Clemson University
Heather Hensman Kettrey
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Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are school-based organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth and their allies that often attempt to improve school climate for sexual and gender minority youth. This meta-analysis evaluates the association between school GSA presence and youth’s self-reports of school-based victimization by quantitatively synthesizing 15 primary studies with 62,923 participants. Findings indicate GSA presence is associated with significantly lower levels of youth’s self-reports of homophobic victimization, fear for safety, and hearing homophobic remarks, and these results are robust, controlling for a variety of study-level factors. The findings of this meta-analysis provide evidence to support GSAs as a means of protecting LGTBQ+ youth from school-based victimization.
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Gay-Straight Alliances are Associated with Lower Levels
of School-Based Victimization of LGBTQ+ Youth: A Systematic
Review and Meta-analysis
Robert A. Marx
1
•Heather Hensman Kettrey
2
Received: 18 March 2016 / Accepted: 13 May 2016 / Published online: 24 May 2016
Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Gay-straight alliances (GSAs) are school-based
organizations for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and
queer (LGBTQ?) youth and their allies that often attempt
to improve school climate for sexual and gender minority
youth. This meta-analysis evaluates the association
between school GSA presence and youth’s self-reports of
school-based victimization by quantitatively synthesizing
15 primary studies with 62,923 participants. Findings
indicate GSA presence is associated with significantly
lower levels of youth’s self-reports of homophobic vic-
timization, fear for safety, and hearing homophobic
remarks, and these results are robust, controlling for a
variety of study-level factors. The findings of this meta-
analysis provide evidence to support GSAs as a means of
protecting LGTBQ?youth from school-based
victimization.
Keywords Gay-straight alliances LGBTQ?youth
Victimization Bullying
Introduction
School-based victimization (i.e., bullying, harassment, and
engendering of fear) is a serious problem threatening the
health and psychosocial development of adolescents.
Results from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance
survey, a nationally representative survey of students in
grades nine through twelve, indicated that 19.6 % of
respondents had been victimized on school property (i.e.,
repeatedly teased, victimized by rumors, hit, shoved, or
hurt by one or more students) within the 12-month period
prior to the survey (Kann et al. 2014). This prevalence rate
is alarming considering that school-based victimization is
associated with both immediate and long-term deleterious
outcomes, including poor psychosocial adjustment (Nansel
et al. 2001), increased suicidality (Rigby and Slee 1999),
delinquency (Hanish and Guerra 2002), poor physical
health (Nishina et al. 2005), and poor academic outcomes
(Schwartz et al. 2005).
Although school-based victimization can potentially
affect all students, certain sub-populations are at greater
risk not only for increased victimization but also for dif-
ferential negative effects of such victimization. Adoles-
cents who are perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer, or gender non-conforming (LGBTQ?)
are at an elevated risk for victimization (Berlan et al. 2010;
Dempsey 1994; Schneider et al. 2012). Further, homo-
phobic victimization can have detrimental consequences on
the development of LGBTQ?youth, as it has been asso-
ciated with negative outcomes such as depression (Poteat
and Espelage 2007; Russell et al. 2011; Toomey et al.
2010), substance use (Bontempo and D’Augelli 2002;
Espelage et al. 2008; Goldbach et al. 2014), and suicidality
(Bontempo and D’Augelli 2002; Friedman et al. 2006;
Russell et al. 2011). In fact, homophobic victimization is
more strongly associated with depression and suicidal
ideation than non-homophobic victimization of youth
(Patrick et al. 2013).
Given these negative outcomes, it is clear that address-
ing school-based victimization is vital for promoting the
&Robert A. Marx
robert.a.marx@vanderbilt.edu
1
Department of Human and Organizational Development,
Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University, 230
Appleton Place, Nashville, TN 37203-5721, USA
2
Peabody Research Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville,
TN, USA
123
J Youth Adolescence (2016) 45:1269–1282
DOI 10.1007/s10964-016-0501-7
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... At the school level, the presence of GSAs has been linked to positive school climate and other school-related constructs for both LGBTQ and cisgender, heterosexual students. A meta-analysis found that GSA presence in schools was associated with less homophobic victimization and greater perceived safety among high school students (Marx & Kettrey, 2016). Relevant to the current study, the presence of a GSA club has been linked with other school characteristics: schools with GSAs tend to have higher student enrollment, greater ethnic diversity, a lower proportion of low SES students, and a higher proportion of LGBTQ students (Baams et al., 2018). ...
... Prevention efforts could focus on training and support for teachers to build classroom management skills, while school leadership could focus on strategies to reduce class sizes. Additionally, promoting resources such as GSAs can help mitigate the risks associated with high student loads for teachers (Marx & Kettrey, 2016). ...
... Finally, the OLS model indicated lower rates of homophobic bullying in schools with GSAs, consistent with studies associating GSA presence with reduced bullying risk and enhanced student safety (Marx & Kettrey, 2016). However, the GWR model revealed significant regional disparities in the protective association of GSAs for homophobic bullying. ...
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... GSAs are school-based extracurricular groups, or clubs, where all students come together to discuss issues related to gender and sexuality, typically from a social justice oriented perspective (Baams & Russell, 2021). The mere presence of a GSA is linked to positive impacts on school climate, youth mental health, and academic functioning (Marx & Kettrey, 2016;Poteat et al., 2013). Further, research has shown that greater engagement in GSAs can lead to an increase in perceived peer validation, self-efficacy to promote social justice, and hope, indirectly resulting in decreased anxiety and depression (Poteat et al., 2020). ...
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Despite growing concerns related to the youth mental health crisis and the well-being of sexual and gender minority youth, specifically, most mental health interventions fail to meet the unique needs of this population. Research and clinical guidance have recommended that approaching mental health treatments through a lens of minority stress and intersectionality can be particularly helpful in addressing the mental health concerns of LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer, intersex, and asexual, with the ‘+’ capturing other identities within the gender and sexually diverse population) youth. Because many adolescents do not have access to mental health care, schools have an important role to play in meeting the mental health needs of LGBTQIA+ youth. To address these issues, we propose LGBTQIA+ affirming adaptations to the dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents (STEPS-A) curriculum using Pachankis et al.’s (2023) Adaptation Model to provide practitioners with a culturally affirming model of this social–emotional curriculum, while highlighting the utility of this framework in adapting other evidence-based interventions in schools. We walk readers through each module of DBT STEPS-A and provide rationale for adapting these skills for LGBTQIA+ youth. We offer specific adaptations that facilitators can make through psychoeducation and skills training. For example, we provide sample dialectics that mirror the experience of minority stress and propose examples of coping skills that are relevant for LGBTQIA+ youth (e.g., distracting and self-soothing to tolerate distress). Finally, the role of school psychologists in meeting the mental health needs of LGBTQIA+ youth is discussed along with implications for practice and future research.
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Objective We examined the relationships between victimization from being bullied, suicide, hopelessness, and the presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) on a school campus. Method We analyzed data from the California Healthy Kids Survey from 2005-2007 utilizing hierarchical modeling. Results We found that gay-bias (versus non-gay-bias) victimization is meaningfully connected with the inwardly destructive behavior of attempted suicide among adolescents. We also found that hopelessness helps explain associations between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts and that the presence of a GSA club on a school’s campus attenuates significant connections between gay-bias victimization and suicide attempts by reducing hopelessness. Conclusion Gay-bias victims are more likely than other victims to attempt suicide while also feeling more hopeless. The presence of a GSA on campus may help reduce the attempted suicide and hopelessness associated with gay-bias victimization.
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