The Impact Of School Bullying Experiences On Depressive Status Among Sexual Minority Youth:The Role Of Perceived Social Support

School bullying is a worldwide social problem with a range of short-and long-term negative consequences posing enormous physical and psychological harm to children and adolescents.Sexual and gender minorities(LGBTQ)have been under various pressures from the social environment for a long time and are also at high risk of bullying in schools.Sexual and gender minorities are not only more likely to be involved in school bullying,but also have higher mental health risks,and the psychological and behavioral effects can last for a longer period of time.Social support,a common buffering factor,may often have a positive effect on an individual’s mental health in the face of stress and victimization.This study was to explore the long-term effects of school bullying on depression in sexual minority groups.Study 1 used the revised Delaware Bullying Victimization Scale-Student(DBVS-S),the revised Bullying Behavior Subquestionnaire of Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire,the Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS),and the Perceived social support scale(PSSS)to measure school bullying experiences,social support,and current depression in sexual minorities,and their interrelationships,formed a partial mediation model.A total of 436 questionnaires were distributed,with 327 valid questionnaires.The results shows that(1)compared to cisgender sexual minorities,transgender and non-binary genders have lower perceived social support and more severe depression status;(2)cisgender males and transgender and non-binary genders have more severely bullying situation than cisgender females,with no significant differences in bullying behavior;and(3)bullying victimization experiences influenced sexual minority youth’s current depressed mood through partial mediation of perceived social support.Study 2 used qualitative research to interview six sexual minority youth who experienced school bullying and retraced the dynamic psychological changes of sexual minority youth entry in school bullying.Based on rooting theory,the interview content was coded and analyzed at three levels using Nvivo 20 software,resulting in four themes: the specific context in which bullying occurs;the individual’s psychological developmental context;the influence of sexual and gender factors;and the role of psychosocial and social support.The results shows that(1)The dynamics of sexual minorities in school bullying are described at three levels: the onset of bullying,the psychological dynamics of sexual minorities in bullying situations,and the positive factors of mental health of sexual minority youth and the cessation of school bullying;(2)A mental health model of sexual minority youth in school bullying was developed to explain the long-term effects of minority status,social pressure,and social support on depressed mood in sexual minority youth.