Does Teacher Intervention Moderate the Effects of Harassment At School?

Introduction: Lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are at greater risk of being harassed and bullied at school than heterosexual adolescents (Kann, O'Malley Olsen, McManus, et al. 2011; Williams, Connolly, Pepler, & Craig, 2005).  The negative effects of bullying and harassment, including decreased psychosocial health and well-being, have been well established in the literature (Williams et al., 2005; Russell, Ryan, Toomey, Diaz & Sanchez, 2011). This study examines students’ experiences of LGB harassment at school and assesses whether teacher interventions moderate these effects by reducing the number of students who skip school because of a concern for their safety.

Methods: Data were from the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS). Logistic regression models were used to explore the interrelationships between skipping school because of feeling unsafe (dependent variable), harassment, teacher intervention, and sexual orientation. Separate models were used to explore whether the relationship was different for those experiencing harassment themselves or hearing others being harassed. Models included interaction terms that assessed whether teacher intervention moderated the effects of harassment on skipping school and whether there were differences in the moderating effects for LGB (n=118) versus heterosexual students (n=2,062).

Results: Results indicated that, compared to straight youth, LGB were more likely to skip school because of a concern for their safety [OR: 1.98, p = .04 and OR: 3.35, p < .001]. Regardless of their sexual orientation students who were directly harassed based on orientation were more likely to skip school [OR: 3.77, p < .001] but students who heard anti-LGB slurs were not more likely to skip school. Teacher interventions did not moderate the effect of harassment on skipping school due to safety concerns; there was no difference in these effects for LGB versus heterosexual students.

Conclusions: Our analysis revealed that teacher interventions did not have a moderating effect on skipping school when students either directly experienced or indirectly heard harassing remarks based on sexual orientation. Findings suggest that stronger teacher interventions may be needed, schools still need to focus on preventing harassment, and more specific questions may be needed to better assess the impact of teacher interventions on student safety.