School Engagement Among Sexual Minority Students: Understanding the Contributing Roles of School Climate, Adult Allies, and Gay-Straight Alliances in Predicting Academic Outcomes

Background and Purpose: Among general populations of youth, school engagement has been associated with positive academic outcomes, such as higher grades, completion of high school, and improved test scores (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Theories of school engagement are frequently used to encourage student investment at school and develop interventions with youth to prevent dropping out (Furlong & Christenson, 2008). However, little research has been done to examine whether school engagement is a useful construct in understanding and predicting the academic success of sexual minority (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and/or questioning) youth, who often face hostile school environments and stigma that make it difficult to achieve academic success (Pearson, Muller, & Wilkinson, 2007). To help fill this gap, we ask: Does school engagement predict academic outcomes (GPA and fear-based truancy) for sexual minority youth, after controlling for demographic and school-related variables?

Method: Data were collected as part of the annual survey of Rainbow Alley, the youth program of The GLBT Community Center of Colorado. The final sample included 318 sexual minority individuals who ranged in age from 13 to 24 years old. Participants in this study were recruited from two primary sources: (a) youth receiving services or attending social events at sexual minority youth-serving programs in the state of Colorado, and (b) youth who elected to click a web link that was displayed on The Center's webpage inviting participation in the study. We utilized responses from survey questions related to: (a) demographic variables such as race/ethnicity and gender identity; (b) school-related variables, such as presence of a gay-straight alliance; (c) a school engagement scale; and (d) our dependent variables: self-reported grades (rescored as numeric GPA) and fear-based truancy. We used hierarchical multiple regression to test two models designed to answer our research question.

Results: We find that school engagement is a significant predictor of GPA, and this relationship is strongest in the presence of a gay-straight alliance (p < .05). Having an adult ally at school is significantly associated with a decrease in fear-based truancy (p < .001), while school engagement predicts a decrease in fear-based truancy only for youth who have higher levels of subjective fear at school (p < .05). Conclusions and Implications: Our findings suggest that school social workers may find that fostering greater school engagement among sexual minority youth supports stronger academic achievement for these youth. Concurrently supporting numerous interventions (e.g., supporting both the formation and maintenance of a GSA while also implementing programs to strengthen school engagement) may have an exponential impact on academic performance for sexual minority youth. Some of the strongest predictors of fear-based truancy were having a safe adult at school and subjective experiences of fear at school rather than school engagement. Interventions in schools that promote school engagement may be particularly important in decreasing truancy among the sexual minority youth who experience the most fear.