NCJ Number
212346
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 34 Issue: 5 Dated: October 2005 Pages: 471-482
Date Published
October 2005
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the link between sexual orientation and adjustment in a community sample of 97 sexual minority (gay male, lesbian, bisexual, and questioning) high school students, taking into account their experiences of peer victimization and social support within peer and family contexts.
Abstract
Participants were drawn from a larger project that involved 1,598 adolescents from 5 high schools in a large south-central Canadian city. All of the adolescents were asked to indicate their sexual orientation as either: heterosexual, gay male, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning their sexual orientation. A total of 97 (45 boys and 52 girls) participants indicated being in 1 of the sexual-minority groups. Measures of psychosocial adjustment focused on depression symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and victimization (bullying, sexual harassment, and physical abuse by peers). Measures of social support pertained to the quality of relationships with mother and best friend as well as friendship networks. Compared to a comparison sample of their heterosexual peers, sexual-minority adolescents reported more externalizing behaviors and depression symptoms. They also reported more sexual harassment, bullying, less closeness with their mothers, and less companionship with their best friends. There were no significant differences in these variables across the sexual-minority subgroups. Among sexual-minority youth, the link between social support and externalizing behavior was mediated by experiences of peer victimization. These findings identify the contextual risk and protective factors related to the emotional and behavioral problems in the sexual-minority population. 1 table, 3 figures, and 41 references