The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample

Abstract Background Sexual minority status is associated with face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying victimization. However, limited studies have investigated whether such a relationship differs by sex or grade in a nationally representative sample. Methods We concatenated the national high school...

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Main Authors: Junjie Lu, Jiarui Yang, Ekaterina Sadikova, Henning Tiemeier
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2024-02-01
Series:BMC Public Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17988-y
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author Junjie Lu
Jiarui Yang
Ekaterina Sadikova
Henning Tiemeier
author_facet Junjie Lu
Jiarui Yang
Ekaterina Sadikova
Henning Tiemeier
author_sort Junjie Lu
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Sexual minority status is associated with face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying victimization. However, limited studies have investigated whether such a relationship differs by sex or grade in a nationally representative sample. Methods We concatenated the national high school data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) chronologically from 2015 to 2019, resulting in a sample of 32,542 high school students. We constructed models with the interaction term between sexual minority status and biological sex assigned at birth to test the effect modification by sex on both the multiplicative and additive scales. A similar method was used to test the effect modification by grade. Results Among heterosexual students, females had a higher odds of being bullied than males, while among sexual minority students, males had a higher odds of being bullied. The effect modification by sex was significant on both the multiplicative and additive scales. We also found a decreasing trend of bullying victimization as the grade increased among both heterosexual and sexual minority students. The effect modification by the grade was significant on both the multiplicative and the additive scale. Conclusions Teachers and public health workers should consider the difference in sex and grade when designing prevention programs to help sexual minority students.
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spelling doaj.art-9a8e1f26466c4f1481d0e0088a7e920d2024-03-05T20:35:39ZengBMCBMC Public Health1471-24582024-02-0124111110.1186/s12889-024-17988-yThe association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sampleJunjie Lu0Jiarui Yang1Ekaterina Sadikova2Henning Tiemeier3Department of Social and Behavior Sciences, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public HealthDepartment of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical SchoolDepartment of Epidemiology, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public HealthDepartment of Social and Behavior Sciences, Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public HealthAbstract Background Sexual minority status is associated with face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying victimization. However, limited studies have investigated whether such a relationship differs by sex or grade in a nationally representative sample. Methods We concatenated the national high school data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) chronologically from 2015 to 2019, resulting in a sample of 32,542 high school students. We constructed models with the interaction term between sexual minority status and biological sex assigned at birth to test the effect modification by sex on both the multiplicative and additive scales. A similar method was used to test the effect modification by grade. Results Among heterosexual students, females had a higher odds of being bullied than males, while among sexual minority students, males had a higher odds of being bullied. The effect modification by sex was significant on both the multiplicative and additive scales. We also found a decreasing trend of bullying victimization as the grade increased among both heterosexual and sexual minority students. The effect modification by the grade was significant on both the multiplicative and the additive scale. Conclusions Teachers and public health workers should consider the difference in sex and grade when designing prevention programs to help sexual minority students.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17988-yBullying victimizationSexual minoritySexEffect modification
spellingShingle Junjie Lu
Jiarui Yang
Ekaterina Sadikova
Henning Tiemeier
The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
BMC Public Health
Bullying victimization
Sexual minority
Sex
Effect modification
title The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
title_full The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
title_fullStr The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
title_full_unstemmed The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
title_short The association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade: findings from a nationally representative sample
title_sort association of sexual minority status and bullying victimization is modified by sex and grade findings from a nationally representative sample
topic Bullying victimization
Sexual minority
Sex
Effect modification
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-17988-y
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