Abstract
Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth are at heightened risk for bullying and other forms of in-school victimization. Anti-bullying laws are a potential policy mechanism for addressing this issue, yet there has been little investigation of the impact of such policies for this population using generalizable samples or quasi-experimental designs. The current study explores whether the presence of state anti-bullying laws predicts lower likelihood of bullying victimization, fear-based absenteeism, in-school threats or injury with a weapon, and suicidality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning high school students in the United States. Based on Youth Risk Behavior Survey data across 22 states from 2005–2015, coupled with data about the presence of general and enumerated anti-bullying laws that include sexual orientation as a protected class, this study analyzes this topic using a quasi-experimental design (linear difference-in-difference models). The results indicate that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning youth (particularly boys aged 15 or younger) experienced less bullying victimization in states with general or enumerated anti-bullying laws. There was modest evidence of a reduction in fear-based absenteeism among boys in states with such laws. However, there was little evidence of a relationship between such policies and in-school threats or injuries or suicidality. Further, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning girls’ likelihood of victimization, absenteeism, or suicidality was generally not related to the presence of anti-bullying laws. The results suggest that general and enumerated anti-bullying laws may help reduce bullying victimization for gay, bisexual, and questioning boys.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Alex Cason for support with data cleaning and merging. Massachusetts data were provided by the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Authors’ Contributions
K.S. led the conceptualization of the study, acquired the datasets, contributed to the analytic design, and participated in drafting and revising the manuscript. M.B.W. contributed to the analytic design, conducted the statistical analyses, and participating in drafting and revising the manuscript. Both authors read and approved of the final manuscript.
Funding
This research did not receive any specific grant funding from agencies in the public, commercial, or notfor- profit sectors.
Data Sharing and Declaration
YRBS data are publicly available from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm. The state-level data on anti-bullying policies and control variables are available from the authors upon reasonable request.
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This study involved secondary data analysis of de-identified data and was determined to be “not human subjects research” by the IRB at Georgia State University.
Informed Consent
For the YRBS, states and schools can determine procedures for obtaining parental permission for youth involvement in the survey. Some states and local schools choose to use active permission (a parent or guardian must send back a signed consent form before the youth can participate), while others use passive permission (a parent or guardian sends back a signed form only if they do not want their child to participate). Because this manuscript uses deidentified secondary data, the authors do not have copies of the informed consent forms.
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Seelman, K.L., Walker, M.B. Do Anti-Bullying Laws Reduce In-School Victimization, Fear-based Absenteeism, and Suicidality for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Questioning Youth?. J Youth Adolescence 47, 2301–2319 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0904-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-018-0904-8