Gender Expression, Violence, and Bullying Victimization: Findings From Probability Samples of High School Students in 4 US School Districts.
Allegra R Gordon, Kerith J Conron, Jerel P Calzo and 3 others
PMID 29498058WHAT IT FOUND
Students perceived as more gender nonconforming reported more bullying, missing school because they felt unsafe, fighting, and weapon threats or injury.
Risk patterns varied by sex, and some violence risks were also higher among highly gender conforming students.
Key findings
01Greater gender nonconformity was significantly associated with higher odds of past-year bullying victimization and past-month school absence because of feeling unsafe.
02Fighting and fight-related injury needing treatment showed significant curved associations with gender expression, with elevated risk at both highly conforming and highly nonconforming ends.
03Being threatened or injured with a weapon showed a sex-by-gender expression interaction, with a pronounced elevated predicted probability among the most gender nonconforming girls.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether perceived gender expression led to victimization or whether victimization changed reported gender expression. All measures are self-reported, and students who experienced violence or bullying may have reported gender expression differently. The survey did not identify transgender youth, so the findings may not capture a group likely affected by gender-expression discrimination. The sample came from four urban school districts that chose to include the gender expression item, so it may not represent all US high schools. The analysis did not examine differences by race/ethnicity because of sample size. Students with missing key responses were excluded, including 4.9% missing gender expression, less than 1% missing sex, and 3.1% missing key covariates.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not include a separate author disclosure statement. The publication types list research support from NIH, Extramural, U.S. Gov't, and P.H.S.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these associations as proof that gender expression causes bullying or violence, or that changing gender expression would reduce victimization. The study was cross-sectional and self-reported, so it cannot show which came first, and it did not test any prevention intervention.