Are school policies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity associated with less bullying? Teachers' perspectives

Stephen T Russell; Jack K. Day; Salvatore Ioverno; Russell B. Toomey

doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2015.10.005

Are school policies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity associated with less bullying? Teachers' perspectives

Stephen T Russell, Jack K. Day, Salvatore Ioverno, Russell B. Toomey

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

57 Scopus citations

Abstract

Bullying is common in U.S. schools and is linked to emotional, behavioral, and academic risk for school-aged students. School policies and practices focused on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been designed to reduce bullying and show promising results. Most studies have drawn from students' reports: We examined teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools along with their assessments of school safety, combined with principals' reports of SOGI-focused policies and practices. Merging two independent sources of data from over 3000 teachers (California School Climate Survey) and nearly 100 school principals (School Health Profiles) at the school level, we used multi-level models to understand bullying problems in schools. Our results show that SOGI-focused policies reported by principals do not have a strong independent association with teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools. However, in schools with more SOGI-focused policies, the association between teachers' assessments of school safety and bullying problems is stronger. Recent developments in education law and policy in the United States and their relevance for student well-being are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	29-38
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of School Psychology
Volume	54
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2015.10.005
State	Published - Feb 1 2016

Keywords

Gender identity
LGBT
Principal reports
School policy
Sexual orientation
Teacher reports

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Education
Developmental and Educational Psychology

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10.1016/j.jsp.2015.10.005

Cite this

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title = "Are school policies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity associated with less bullying? Teachers' perspectives",

abstract = "Bullying is common in U.S. schools and is linked to emotional, behavioral, and academic risk for school-aged students. School policies and practices focused on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been designed to reduce bullying and show promising results. Most studies have drawn from students' reports: We examined teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools along with their assessments of school safety, combined with principals' reports of SOGI-focused policies and practices. Merging two independent sources of data from over 3000 teachers (California School Climate Survey) and nearly 100 school principals (School Health Profiles) at the school level, we used multi-level models to understand bullying problems in schools. Our results show that SOGI-focused policies reported by principals do not have a strong independent association with teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools. However, in schools with more SOGI-focused policies, the association between teachers' assessments of school safety and bullying problems is stronger. Recent developments in education law and policy in the United States and their relevance for student well-being are discussed.",

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author = "Russell, {Stephen T} and Day, {Jack K.} and Salvatore Ioverno and Toomey, {Russell B.}",

note = "Funding Information: The California School Climate Survey was developed by WestEd under contract to the California Department of Education. The authors acknowledge generous support from the Just and Fair Schools Fund at NEO Philanthropy, a fellowship to Ioverno funded by the European Commission and Lazio Region (Italy) , and support for Russell from the Fitch Nesbitt Endowment at the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth and Families, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, and the Priscilla Pond Flawn Endowment at the University of Texas at Austin. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology.",

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N1 - Funding Information: The California School Climate Survey was developed by WestEd under contract to the California Department of Education. The authors acknowledge generous support from the Just and Fair Schools Fund at NEO Philanthropy, a fellowship to Ioverno funded by the European Commission and Lazio Region (Italy) , and support for Russell from the Fitch Nesbitt Endowment at the Frances McClelland Institute for Children, Youth and Families, Norton School of Family and Consumer Sciences, University of Arizona, and the Priscilla Pond Flawn Endowment at the University of Texas at Austin. Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Society for the Study of School Psychology.

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N2 - Bullying is common in U.S. schools and is linked to emotional, behavioral, and academic risk for school-aged students. School policies and practices focused on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been designed to reduce bullying and show promising results. Most studies have drawn from students' reports: We examined teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools along with their assessments of school safety, combined with principals' reports of SOGI-focused policies and practices. Merging two independent sources of data from over 3000 teachers (California School Climate Survey) and nearly 100 school principals (School Health Profiles) at the school level, we used multi-level models to understand bullying problems in schools. Our results show that SOGI-focused policies reported by principals do not have a strong independent association with teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools. However, in schools with more SOGI-focused policies, the association between teachers' assessments of school safety and bullying problems is stronger. Recent developments in education law and policy in the United States and their relevance for student well-being are discussed.

AB - Bullying is common in U.S. schools and is linked to emotional, behavioral, and academic risk for school-aged students. School policies and practices focused on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) have been designed to reduce bullying and show promising results. Most studies have drawn from students' reports: We examined teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools along with their assessments of school safety, combined with principals' reports of SOGI-focused policies and practices. Merging two independent sources of data from over 3000 teachers (California School Climate Survey) and nearly 100 school principals (School Health Profiles) at the school level, we used multi-level models to understand bullying problems in schools. Our results show that SOGI-focused policies reported by principals do not have a strong independent association with teachers' reports of bullying problems in their schools. However, in schools with more SOGI-focused policies, the association between teachers' assessments of school safety and bullying problems is stronger. Recent developments in education law and policy in the United States and their relevance for student well-being are discussed.

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Are school policies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity associated with less bullying? Teachers' perspectives

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