Bisexual teens at greatest risk of bullying and suicide
By Liz Lockhart
Those at the greatest risk of having suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, bullying by peers and truancy are 
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths according to researchers at the University of Illinois who conducted a recent study. Also at risk are those who are questioning their sexuality. This group of youths is referred to as LGBTQ students.
More than 13,00 middle and high school students in Dane County completed anonymous, online surveys for the purpose of this study. According to the researchers, this survey included eight questions with low-probability responses that were designed to screen out mischievous responders.
Dr. Dorothy Espelage and Dr. Joseph Robinson, educational psychologists, found that while the majority of the students reported that they were not at risk of suicide, being bullied or playing truant, they were at at greater risk than straight students.
Just over 7% of straight youths reported thinking about suicide during the previous 30 days compared to 33% of LGBTQ students. Bisexual youths were found to be at a particularly high risk (44%) as were questioning youths (32%). There was also an elevated risk of suicide attempts among bisexual youth as over 21% reported that they had made at least one attempt during the previous twelve months.
Almost twice as many LGBTQ students reported cyber bullying. 39% of LGBTQ students compared to 20% of straight students reported having been bullied, harassed or bullied over the Internet. It was the bisexual group of youths which reported the highest levels of victimisation among the sexual minority youths (49%).
A considerably lower sense of school ‘belongingness’ was reported by LGBTQ students compared to straight students. This was described in the study as the feeling that they belonged at their school, feeling that graduating was important and a feeling that there were adults they could talk to when they had problems.
A far higher rate of truancy was reported by the LGBTQ group of students (22%) when compared to straight students
Robinson said ‘For some of the outcomes, such as unexcused absences, we found that LGBTQ were already at a heightened risk level by middle school. We interpret that as a sign that we may need to intervene earlier for LGBTQ students. We can’t look at what straight kids are doing and assume that LGBTQ kids are at the same risk.’
‘The fact that we see these large differences in risk patterns for LGBT students in middle school is cause for concern and points to the need for more research to understand why they have disproportionately poorer educational and psychological outcomes,’ Robinson added.
Safer school environments and better outcomes for LGBTQ students could be achieved by including discussions about sexual orientation and sexual identity in bullying prevention programmes, the researchers say.
The study is published in the journal Educational Researcher.
Source: University of Illinois
