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The Role of Perceived Gay-Straight Alliance Social Support in the Longitudinal Association Between Homophobic Cyberbullying and LGBTQIA Adolescents’ Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms

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Abstract

There has been little research attention given to how Gay-Straight Alliances might mitigate mental health consequences associated with experiencing homophobic cyberbullying. To address this gap in knowledge, the purpose of this one-year longitudinal study was to investigate the moderating effect of perceived social support from Gay-Straight Alliances in the relationships among homophobic cyberbullying victimization and bystanding and depressive and anxiety symptoms among 466 LGBTQIA adolescents (Mage = 15.76; 52% female). The findings revealed that perceived social support was related negatively to homophobic cyberbullying involvement and depressive and anxiety symptoms. Homophobic cyberbullying involvement was related positively to depressive and anxiety symptoms. High perceived social support buffered against the depressive and anxiety symptoms resulting from homophobic victimization and bystanding among LGBTQIA adolescents but low levels and average levels did not moderate these associations. These findings highlight the importance of expanding Gay-Straight Alliances in schools.

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Acknowledgements

We want to thank the adolescents who participated in this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

M.F.W. conceived of the study, participated in its design, coordinated the study and performed the measurement, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; SW conceived of the study and aided in interpretation of the data; M.M. aided in the interpretation of the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Michelle F. Wright.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the first author’s institution. The research complied with ethical standards in the conduction of the study.

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Written informed consent was obtained from parents of the participants.

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Wright, M.F., Wachs, S. & Gámez-Guadix, M. The Role of Perceived Gay-Straight Alliance Social Support in the Longitudinal Association Between Homophobic Cyberbullying and LGBTQIA Adolescents’ Depressive and Anxiety Symptoms. J Youth Adolescence 51, 1388–1396 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-022-01585-6

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