These past several weeks have been
filled with so much information that I have found useful to my research topic
and I have been able to answer my research question as well as several other
questions that have come up while looking into the topic of homophobic bullying
in middle school and high school as well as on bullying in general. This
research has made me think about the role I will play someday as an Educator
and how I can help put a stop to the bullying taking place in the school I end
up working in.
There was so much of my research I found
to be interesting and so much knowledge that I could share with everyone, but a
few things that really stood out in my mind were the numbers of teachers aware
of the issue; 97% of teachers are aware of homophobic bullying taking place in
their school, 82% are aware of the verbal homophobic bullying and 26% are aware
of the physical homophobic bullying happening in the very school they are
working in… But what is being done to stop it from happening? (McNamee 2008) Another
article stated 59% of lesbian, gay and bisexual students at a New York school
reported that school personnel was present during the bullying and did nothing
to stop the attacks from happening.(Birkett 2009) How are the students supposed
to feel safe going to school? No wonder students who are bullied due to their
sexual orientation are reported to have lower test scores, higher amounts of
absences and truancies, suffer from depression and anxiety and even have
thoughts of suicide or have even attempted suicide. One study stated 40% of
those who experienced homophobic bullying reported attempting suicide on more
than one occasion. (McNamee 2008)
It is painful to read about what these
students have to endure and to think about how the rest of their lives will be affected
by the treatment they received while in school. Sadly it seems like the problem
gets worse and worse as the years go by. This research has opened my eyes to
ways I would like to make a difference when I make it to the education world.
Below is my annotated bibiliography….
Beware, my annotations are long! J
What are the
Effects of Homophobic Bullying on Students in Middle School and High School?
Birkett, Michelle; Espelage, Dorothy L;
Koenig, Brian. (August 2009) LGB and
Questioning
Students in Schools: The Moderating Effects of
Homophobic Bullying and School Climate on Negative Outcomes, v38 n7
p989-1000. Retrieved from: http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/eds/detail?vid=2&sid=e811904c-69a2-4008-a7476d58a892ecde%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4203&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZl#db=eric&AN=EJ843881
This article discusses
the issues lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning youths face while in school
and the outcome of the bullying they are subjected to while attending middle
school and high school. The article discusses issues such as drug use, school
difficulties, depression and suicidal tendencies. According to the article,
students who were questioning their sexual orientation reported the most bullying,
the most drug use, the most feelings of depression and suicidal thoughts, and
more truancy then heterosexual youth or LGB youth. Not only do students have to
face the issues of being bullied due to their sexual orientation but according
to this article 59% of LGB students at a New York school reported that school
personnel were present during the bullying and did nothing to stop the attacks
from happening. This source addresses the effect on students caused by
homophobic bullying. It discusses the difficulties they face in school such as
truancy and absence, as well as the psychological effects such as depression,
anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. One thing I found disturbing in the article was
the fact that a high number of school teachers and staff are not doing anything
to stop the bullying and not protecting their students. This is something I
would like to explore further in future research. The authors are comprised of
Psychologists, Professors, and Counselors in Medical Social Sciences and Educational
Psychology. The article discusses my research topic and helps answer my
research question. The information is supported by studies and graphs to show
how the information was gathered and what the findings are. The information in
this article is fact based and easy to understand. This is a good source to be
used to answer my questions about the effects of homophobic bullying amongst
high school students.
C. de Wet. (2005). The Voices of Victims and Witnesses of School Bullying, 70 (4).
Retrieve
This article
discusses the negative long term as well as short term effects caused by
bullying in school, not only the effects on the victim but also on the bully
themselves. Victims of bullying, regardless of the type of victimization,
report high levels of internalized mental and social problems such as
depression and suicidal tendencies. This article discusses how victims of
school bullying can lash out at their parents, who are typically unaware of the
bullying their child is facing at school, which eventually leads to the
deterioration of their family relationships. This article opens the readers eyes
to the mental and social problems the bully themselves face as a result to
their misconduct; issues such as self-destructive behavior, alcohol and drug
use, fighting, cheating, carrying weapons, stealing, truancy, vandalism and
problems with law enforcement. While my research is based on the effect caused
by homophobic bullying, it is interesting to think about what the bully faces
as a result to their misconduct. This could be another area to explore in my
quest to learn as much as possible about the effects of bullying and ways of
preventing these outcomes from happening with my future students. This articles
author is a professor in Comparative Education at the School of Open Learning,
University of the Free State. She holds a D.Ed in Comparative Education and a
Ph.D. in History and has co-authored more than 70 articles. It is relevant to
my research question and also gives the reader the perspective of both sides of
the spectrum. There are studies discussed within the article and tables to help
the reader to understand the results.
Elza Venter., & Elize C. du Plessis.
(2012). Bullying in Schools – The
Educator’s Role, 29 (1).
This is a
current article published in 2012 by The
Bulletin for Christian Scholarship, written by authors who are affiliated
with the Department of Psychology of Education, the College of Education, the
Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies and the University of South
Africa. The article is intended for educators and the everyday reader to have a
better understanding of the bullying taking place in schools and ways of
dealing with bullying in the classroom. This article touches on the topic of
the effects caused by homophobic bullying in schools and therefore is a good
source to answer my research question. It discusses how bullying effects
students healthy development into adulthood, which include depression, anxiety,
loneliness, low self-esteem and even thoughts of suicide. Bullying can also
cause physical problems such as headaches, loss of appetite and stomach
problems. Homophobic bullying can also lead to educational problems including
absence, truancy, low test scores, withdrawal from school activities, loss of
concentration and fear of asking questions. These effects follow the students
into their adult life and can cause eating disorders, depression, poor
self-esteem, relationship problems and a lack of conflict resolution skills.
One portion of the article I found interesting and might like to explore
further is the portion that discussed the pressure students feel to compete
with each other for academic, sports and cultural achievement. This causes
students, as well as teachers to “lose their moral compass” and work towards
hidden agendas and manipulation rather than honesty. The hostility interferes with the learning
process. I would like to look into this further to help me towards my future as
an educator.
McNamee, Helen, Lloyd, Katrina,
Schuboltz, Dirk (2008). Same Sex
Attraction, Homophobic
Bullying and Mental Health of Young People in
Northern Ireland.
Available from: http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f6707174-7236-46f8-938b-f4b23f375251%40sessionmgr111&vid=6&hid=105
This article
related to my research question about the effects of homophobic bullying in
middle school and high school because it discusses the many different
psychological issues that students face due to bullying and the long term
effects carried into adulthood. The article shows the reader several studies to
prove the facts given within the article. It also touches on the topic of the
lack of educators helping to put a stop to the issue at hand. The article
discusses the use of a 12 item version of the General Health Questionnaire
(GHQ12) as a tool to assess the students in Northern Ireland. The article
discusses the results and gives the reader a better understanding of the
effects on a student’s mental health caused by bullying. 47.1% of same/both
sex-attracted students reported being bullied compared to the 28.2% of opposite
sex-attracted students. I find that this article answers several aspects of my
research. It discusses the effects on a student’s mental health, it gives the
reader facts and figures to help them understand the bullying that is taking
place and it also opens the readers eyes to the role the educators are playing
in the bullying taking place, or the lack of help the teachers are giving
students that are being bullied. It is a shame to see that the people these
students are supposed to be able to turn to for “protection” are simply turning
the other cheek. The article is based on facts obtained through testing and
surveys, it is published in the Journal
of Youth Studies, and was written by authors that are part of the Economic
and Social Research Council and lecturer’s at the School of Education at
Queen’s University Belfast. This article also reviews another one of my
sources, Homophobic Bullying by Ian
Rivers.
Poteat, V. Paul, & Mereish, Ethan
H., & DiGiovanni, Craig D., & Koenig, Brian W. (2011) The
Effects of General and Homophobic Victimization on
Adolescents’ Psychosocial and Educational Concerns: The Importance of
Intersecting Identities and Parent Support, 58(4). Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.libproxy.chapman.edu/eds/detail?vid=5&sid=becf6012-bf9f-4569-8ef6-2e82c37a561e%40sessionmgr112&hid=4210&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLHVpZCZzaXRlPWVkcy1saXZl#db=pdh&AN=2011-18198-001
This academic
journal shows the reader that LGBTQ youth report greater numbers of
victimization, distress and poorer academic performance then heterosexual
youths. It indicates that homophobic victimization will result in higher
numbers of negative outcomes related to mental health, school belonging and
academic concerns. This article suggests that counseling psychologist should
work with parents of youths who have experienced homophobic bullying and teach
them ways to approach administrator who may be hesitant to approach the issue
of sexual orientation and homophobic bullying. The authors of this article work
for the Department of Counseling, Development and Educational Psychology at
Boston College; with experience working with homophobic and other forms of
bias-based bullying. The article is current and was published in the Journal of
Counseling and Psychology by the US: American Psychological Association. In
this article, the discussion of the social, mental and physical effects caused
by homophobic bullying is relevant to my research topic and helps to answer my
research question.
Rivers, Ian. (2011). Homophobic Bullying: Research and Theoretical
Perspectives. Available
From:http://chapcat.chapman.edu/search~S1?/Xhomophobic+bullying&searchscope=1&SORT=D/Xhomophobic+bullying&searchscope=1&SORT=D&SUBKEY=homophobic+bullying/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=Xhomophobic+bullying&searchscope=1&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C Publisher: New York : Oxford University
Press, c2011
The book
Homophobic Bullying by Ian Rivers was written to help readers understand what
homophobic bullying is and what effects it has on students in high school, as
well as the effects that follow them into adulthood. There are studies that are
illustrated in this book by Rivers to help show the reader the various long
term effects that can result from homophobic bullying at a young age (such as
middle school and high school students). Rivers discusses effects such as ones
inability to trust others, fear of emotional and physical intimacy, fear of
being abused again, fear of suffering rejection, betrayal or abandonment, and
feelings of unworthiness or dependence. I find this source to be useful for
individuals seeking to understand the psychosocial effects bullying has on
students in middle school and high school and how they can affect these
individuals throughout their life. Due to the author’s credentials as a Psychologist,
a Professor of Human Development and an author of several books, articles and
reports on the subject of bullying and LGBT issues, I find this book to be a
reliable source for my research. The book is current, it gives an ample amount
of information on the short term and long term effects caused by homophobic
bullying, and it is scholarly however, it is easy for the everyday reader to
understand. The information comes from various studies conducted as well as
firsthand accounts from students who have suffered from victimization due to
their sexual orientation. This book specifically touches on my research of what
effects homophobic bullying can have on students in middle school and high
school, however it also gives insight into the long term effects that these
individuals will deal with for the rest of their lives, including
post-traumatic stress syndrome (or PTSD).
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