Open AccessTeacher Support Moderates Associations among Sexual Orientation Identity Outness, Victimization, and Academic Performance among LGBQ+Youth
Author(s) -
V. Paul Poteat,
Ryan J. Watson,
Jessica N. Fish
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of youth and adolescence
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.883
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1573-6601
pISSN - 0047-2891
DOI - 10.1007/s10964-021-01455-7
Subject(s) - sexual orientation , psychology , lesbian , sexual minority , sexual identity , queer , moderated mediation , association (psychology) , homosexuality , heterosexism , transgender , legal psychology , identity (music) , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , social psychology , human sexuality , psychotherapist , gender studies , sociology , psychoanalysis , physics , acoustics
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and youth with other minority sexual orientations (LGBQ+) who are more out to others about their sexual orientation identity may experience greater victimization at school based on sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, with negative implications for academic performance. Teacher support, however, may buffer these associations. Among a national US sample of cisgender and trans/non-binary LGBQ+ youth (n = 11,268; 66.1% White, 66.8% cisgender, M age = 15.5 years, SD age = 1.3), latent moderated-mediation models were tested in which perceived teacher support and affirmation moderated the extent to which sexual orientation identity outness was associated with poorer reported academic performance in part through its association with greater victimization. As hypothesized, greater perceived teacher support and affirmation buffered (a) the association between sexual orientation identity outness and victimization, (b) the association between victimization and reported academic performance, and (c) the indirect association between sexual orientation identity outness and reported academic performance through victimization. These findings underscore the important protective role of supportive teachers for LGBQ+ youth in schools.