Influence of Curriculum and Role Models on High School Students Willingness to Intervene When Witnessing Anti-Lgbtq Harassment

Background and Purpose

Bullying and discrimination related to gender and sexuality are embedded in the everyday experiences of students, often occurring in settings where adults are not present. Student peers may be particularly well-suited to address this type of harassment. Existing literature suggests that the students’ likelihood to intervene when witnessing harassment is significantly related to the larger environmental climate; specifically, around issues of sexuality and gender identity, past research has found frequency of biased language, as well as peer and teacher role modeling to be important factors. Multicultural curriculum, particularly curriculum on race/racism, has been further associated with increased student engagement in anti-bias behaviors. In this paper, we replicate and extend earlier models to investigate the role of curriculum alongside these other factors affecting students’ self-reported intervention behaviors around harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.

Methods

Representative sample of students were systematically surveyed at five high schools in southeast Michigan in 2014 (n=1046). These schools are demographically diverse from each other and include urban, suburban, and rural communities. Respondents self-reported likelihood to intervene around harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. In addition, we measured: exposure to biased language based on sexual orientation (microaggressions and slurs), as well as anti-trans language; witnessing intervention by peers and teachers; and, curricular content on communities of color and LGBTQ communities. We created parallel indices from items reporting the frequency of POC and LGBTQ books, authors, history, and positive examples. Linear regressions with OLS estimators were run to examine separately self-reported intervention around sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. Models also controlled for grade, school, race, gender, and LGBTQ identity.

Results

Increased inclusion of communities of color in curriculum was significantly associated with higher rates of self-reported intervention behaviors with respect to all three outcomes; however, LGBTQ curriculum was not significantly associated with any of the outcomes. Both measures of biased language related to sexual identity were significantly associated with intervention behaviors, but in opposite directions; sexual microaggressions were positively associated with intervention behaviors, but slurs were negatively associated. As well, anti-trans language was not significantly associated with any of the outcomes. Finally, witnessing peers and teachers intervene had a positive impact on self-reported intervention behaviors, but our analysis suggests that teachers had a stronger influence.

Conclusions and Implications

The findings of this study provide useful insights into how to effect positive change in schools for LGBTQ students. Interestingly, we found that curriculum related to race and communities of color predicted self-reported intervention behaviors around gender and sexuality but not LGBTQ curriculum. Authors suggest that curriculum on race is embedded in historical movements and social justice content, whereas LGBTQ curriculum focuses on issues of sexuality, health, and identity. Alongside our other findings, we suggest that interventions to decrease anti-LGBTQ bullying emphasize positive role modeling, increased awareness of microaggressions, and curriculum that focuses on change-making, as well as diminishing blatantly discriminatory behaviors that could decrease students’ sense of safety to speak up.