Latent Class Analysis of Victimization Patterns and Associated Protective Factors among LGBTQ Youth

Alberto Valido (), Matthew Rivas-Koehl (), Dane Rivas-Koehl, Dorothy L. Espelage, Timothy I. Lawrence and Luz E. Robinson
Additional contact information
Alberto Valido: School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
Matthew Rivas-Koehl: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Dane Rivas-Koehl: Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Dorothy L. Espelage: School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA
Timothy I. Lawrence: College of Arts and Sciences Psychology Department, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX 77446, USA
Luz E. Robinson: School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-20

Abstract: Youth victimization in schools remains a fervent public health issue, despite increased awareness of this issue, and this is especially true for marginalized populations like lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth. Youth violence has been studied widely, but less research has sought to understand factors protective of violence victimization, particularly protective factors shared across multiple forms of violence. In the current study, we utilized latent class analysis to test patterns of three types of victimization: peer victimization (PV), homophobic name-calling victimization (HNCV), and sexual harassment victimization (SHV). In addition, we tested protective factors associated with experiencing these types of violence. Our sample included 4778 9–11th graders in the United States, of which about 15% identified as LGBTQ. Three unique classes of victimization emerged, suggesting that concurrent forms of violence occur among some groups of adolescents. LGBTQ youth were more likely to be members of classes which demonstrated higher levels of victimization. Consistent with previous literature, medical access, counseling access, family support, peer support, and spirituality emerged as significant protective factors associated with a lower risk of victimization. We discuss the implications of our findings with specific attention to protecting the wellbeing of SGM youth.

Keywords: latent class analysis; sexual harassment; homophobic bullying; bullying victimization; protective factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9953/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/16/9953/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:16:p:9953-:d:886515

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().