Middle School and High School Students' Experiences with Lgbtq Environmental Microaggressions

Background and Purpose: Schools play a critical role in adolescent development but can be among the most homophobic and transphobic environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth.  Overt and covert discrimination of LGBTQ students has been linked to health disparities and negative educational outcomes, including traumatic stress, poor grades, and fear of attending school.  Environmental microaggressions (i.e., macro-level or ambient insults or other negative messages) may have an especially deleterious impact.  Although limited research has investigated microaggressions among LGBQ college students, middle and high school settings remain largely unexplored.  To address this gap, we compared LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ students’ experiences with school-based microaggressions, including prevalence, nature, and bystander intervention.

Methods: Recruitment occurred at a multi-day Midwestern state fair with more than 1.5 million attendees.  Eligible participants were 14-19 year-old youth who were current or recent (past year) middle/high school students in that state. Data were collected via a self-administered iPad survey. Environmental microaggressions were assessed using the five-item subscale of the LGBQ Microaggressions on Campus Scale and 18 items adapted from GLSEN’s Local School Climate Survey. 

Results: The sample (N=778) was comprised of LGBTQ-identified (10%) and non-LGBTQ youth (90%; mean age=16.4 years).  Participants identified as women (63.4%), men (35.5%), trans* or genderqueer (0.9%); the sample was predominantly heterosexual (90.2%), followed by bisexual (4.11%), lesbian (0.5%), gay (0.8%), and unsure (3.08%).  Most respondents were White (86.6%), attended public schools (91.9%), and attended school in metropolitan areas (78.7%).

Environmental microaggressions were reported more frequently by LGBTQ youth (versus non-LGBTQ youth; t=4.09, p=.000), high school students (versus middle school students; t=-2.55, p=.011), and public school students (versus private or religious schools; t=-2.85, p=.004); there were no significant differences between metro/non-metro schools.  LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ students reported an identical order of prevalence of all five environmental microaggressions (i.e., hearing “that’s so gay” to describe something negative was most frequent, followed by hearing “no homo,” receiving heterosexual-only sex education, etc.).  The vast majority of respondents heard derogatory comments about sexual orientation and gender expression/identity in school (95.5% and 74.8%, respectively).  Microaggressions made by students more frequently targeted sexual orientation (88.4%) than gender expression/identity (69.8%); conversely, derogatory comments made by teachers were more often about gender expression/identity (18.5%) than sexual orientation (12.7%).  Student intervention (by respondents themselves) was reported more frequently by LGBTQ youth related to both homophobic and derogatory comments about gender expression/identity (t=3.84, p=.000 and t=3.38, p=.001).  Teachers were perceived as intervening less often by LGBTQ students than their non-LGBTQ peers, regardless of whether comments were about sexual orientation or gender expression/identity (t=-2.89, p=.003 and t=-1.99, p=.047, respectively).

Conclusions and Implications:  LGBTQ microaggressions were common in middle and high school environments with higher prevalence reported by LGBTQ students but consistent reports about microaggression content and types across LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ sub-samples.  Perceptions of teachers as perpetrators or unlikely to intervene suggests continued need for teacher/staff training to create safe school environments for LGBTQ youth.  Implications for social work practice will be discussed, including the need for trans* affirming and bystander intervention initiatives.