School violence victimization, coping, social support, and health-risk behaviors of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth: A report of recent high school graduates

This study addressed gaps in the research on resilience and sexual minority youth victims of school violence. The link between school violence victimization, coping, social support, and health-risk behaviors is examined using data comparing sexual minority (SM, n = 77) and heterosexual (n = 100) recent high school graduates. The survey assessed: past high school violence victimization [including heterosexist victimization and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) slurs or name-calling], social support, individual coping style, and current health-risk behavior (i.e., alcohol/drug use, suicidality, use of violence, and sexual risk-taking).; This study sought to: (a) explore differential victimization experiences of SM youth, (b) determine if past high school violence victimization is positively related to current health-risk behavior, and (c) explore the relationship between resilience indicators (i.e., coping style and social support) and current health-risk behavior.; Results indicate that, sexual minorities, as a group, reported significantly higher rates of victimization (i.e., verbal threats, sexual harassment, and LGBT name-calling) when compared with heterosexuals. Findings support the existence of sexual orientation differences in patterns of school violence victimization after removing the influences of gender, SES, family violence history, and high school community factors. Level of victimization experience differed between lesbian, gay, bisexual male, and bisexual female participants; Bisexual males were the most vulnerable group.; Multiple logistic regression and multiple linear regression analyses revealed that in general, past high school violence victimization predicts current health-risk behavior. Together, sexual minority status and school violence variables predicted suicidality, but not current use of violence. School violence victimization and sexual minority status accounted for 21% of the variance of current drug use, and 14.5% of the variance of current sexual risk-taking.; Findings did not support hypotheses regarding resilience indicators and its relation to current health-risk behavior. However, additional exploratory analyses showed that other resilience indicators, such as membership in a college LGBT support group, were associated with decreased health-risk behavior.; The results of this study underscore the importance of enhancing the research base on resilience among sexual minorities and support the need to develop tailored prevention programs for sexual minority youth.