Sexual Orientation Enumeration in State Antibullying Statutes in the United States: Associations with Bullying, Suicidal Ideation, and Suicide Attempts Among Youth
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PURPOSE: The aim was to assess the associations of antibullying U.S. state statutes that enumerate sexual orientation with exposure to bullying and other stressors and with suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in sexual minority and non sexual minority youth. METHODS: We analyzed data from the 2015 national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey, representative of 9th through 12th grade students attending public and private schools in the United States. We reviewed each state's antibullying statutes and classified them on enumeration. RESULTS: Antibullying state laws that enumerate sexual orientation were associated with lower risk for suicide attempts and serious attempts requiring medical attention and lower risk for forced sexual intercourse. They were also associated with feeling safe at school or on the way to or from school. Results did not differ by sexual orientation. CONCLUSIONS: Enumeration of sexual orientation was associated with reduced stressors and suicide attempts, but it is insufficient to remove significant disparities based on sexual orientation. Additional policies and practices are required to address persistent sexual orientation disparities in exposure to bullying and suicidal behavior.
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Studies have examined the impact of more supportive school climate and same-sex marriage policies in reducing suicidal ideation and attempts, demonstrating analytic strategies linking macro and meso-level context to individual outcomes.
“Studies in this area have examined the impact of more supportive school climate and same-sex marriage policies in reducing suicidal ideation and attempts, thus demonstrating analytic strategies linking macro and meso-level context to individual outcomes (102–104).”
From Structural Racism and Suicide Prevention for Ethnoracially Minoritized Youth: A Conceptual Framework and Illustration Across Systems (2022) · cites this paper as [102]
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- Authors
- Meyer, I. H., Luo, F., Wilson, B. D. M., & Stone, D. M.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US)
- Corresponding author
- Meyer, Ilan H.
- Venue
- LGBT Health
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2019-01
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-14
- ISSN
- 2325-8292 (ISSN-L)
- 2325-8306
- PMC
- PMC6555145
- OpenAlex
- W2910519837
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 8.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- LGBT Health (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (CC999999)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD041022)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Sexuality, and Education
- Keywords
- sexual orientation, bullying, suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, sexual minority youth, school safety, forced sex, state law, LGBT health disparities
- MeSH terms
- Sexual and Gender Minorities, Adolescent, Female, Humans, Legislation as Topic, Male, Surveys and Questionnaires, Risk-Taking, Schools, Sexual Behavior, Stress, Psychological, Suicide, Attempted, United States, Bullying, Suicidal Ideation
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