Retrospective Study of Victimization by Bullying among Sexual Minority and Majority College Students: Exploring External Sources of Support to Promote Resilience

The purpose of this retrospective study was to compare rates of victimization by general, cyber-, and homophobic bullying, trauma, and protective factors of perceived family support, peer support, school membership, and school safety between sexual minority (n = 55) and majority (n = 171) college students during their last year of high school. Additionally, using the Fergus and Zimmerman (2005) protective factor model of resilience, multiple regression analyses were conducted among LGBTQ and heterosexual participants to assess whether or not the protective factors moderated the relationship between victimization by general and cyberbullying and perceived level of trauma due to victimization.

Results revealed significant differences between LGBTQ and heterosexual students across all outcome variables. LGBTQ students reported significantly higher rates of general bullying, cyberbullying and homophobic bullying victimization as well as trauma due to general and cyberbullying than heterosexual students. Additionally, LGBTQ students rated perceptions of family support, peer support, school membership, and school safety significantly lower than heterosexual students.

The protective factors impacted trauma due to victimization differently among the sexual orientation groups. For LGBTQ students, none of the protective factors moderated the relationship between general bullying victimization and perceived trauma due to general bullying. However, perception of school safety was a significant moderator on the effects of cyberbullying victimization and trauma due to cyberbullying. LGBTQ students with high ratings of school safety had lower levels of perceived trauma due to cyberbullying.

Among the heterosexual students, peer support moderated the impact of general bullying victimization on levels of trauma due to general bullying. Family support and school membership were significant moderators between cyberbullying trauma victimization and perceived trauma due to cyberbullying for heterosexual students. Implications suggest the importance in establishing school-based supports, such as anti-bullying policies and procedures and Gay Straight Alliances, which help instill feelings of safety and membership among LGBTQ students within the high school environment. Future research directions include comparing age of sexual orientation disclosure with rates of victimization and support, which can be assessed through the implementation of school district surveys.