Jie Zeng, Weijia Liu
The development and validation of the teacher professional identity scale in a Chinese university context
PloS one
homophobic bullyingwhich motivated actual perceived sexual orientationis common experience among youth strongly associated adverse outcomes bullying unrelated bias yet current approaches reducing homophobic bullying either lack empirical evidence encounter significant obstacles thus field requires identification strategies hold promise reducing homophobic bullying examine whether litigation associated reductions homophobic bullying quasiexperimental study differenceindifference analysis used estimate association litigation homophobic bullying comparing students schools experienced litigation students schools experience litigation controlling individual school characteristics study year county survey responses came high school students 499 schools participating california healthy kids survey largest statewide survey youth risk behaviors protective factors 2001 2016 legal data collected september 2018 september 2019 data analyzed february 2020 april 2021 outcomes litigation related sexual orientationbased harassment discrimination california schools occurring 2000 student reports homophobic bullying 1 448 778 included participants 706 258 487 male 563 973 389 white mean sd age 146 17 years cases plaintiff student secured monetary andor injunctive relief settlement court decision 23 reduction ratio odds ratios ror homophobic bullying schools directly involved litigation relative schools experience litigation ror 077 95 ci 068086 benefits litigation spilled schools district schools experiencing litigation ror 076 95 ci 070081 however homophobic bullying slightly increased school district defendant school avoided adverse legal consequences suggesting potential backlash litigation seeking address alleged violations rights students perceived lesbian gay bisexual transgender laws prohibiting harassment discrimination may lead reductions rates homophobic bullying effect sizes comparable resourceintensive schoolbased bullying interventions findings set stage future studies evaluate consequences different litigation efforts aimed redressing stigmabased harms among youth