Examining the Relationship Between LGBTQ-Supportive School Health Policies and Practices and Psychosocial Health Outcomes of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Students
Abstract
Purpose: We examined the association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ)-supportive school policies and practices with psychosocial health outcomes among lesbian, gay, bisexual (LGB), and heterosexual students.
Methods: The 2014 and 2016 School Health Profiles data from principals and health educators from 117 schools assessed LGBTQ-supportive school policies and practices. We computed the sum of school policies and practices, indicating the number available for each student. The 2015 and 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey data from 75,638 students from the same schools measured psychosocial health outcomes. We conducted multilevel cross-sectional logistic regressions of the associations of school-level policies and practices with student-level health outcomes by sexual identity while controlling for sex, grade, race/ethnicity, and school priority.
Results: Several LGBTQ-supportive school policies and practices were significantly associated with lower odds of feeling threatened at school, suicide-related behaviors, and illicit drug use among LGB students. For heterosexual students, having a gay-straight alliance or similar club was linked to multiple health outcomes, whereas other policies and practices were significantly associated with lower odds of safety concerns at school, forced sexual intercourse, feeling sad or hopeless, and illicit drug use. Increasing the sum of policies and practices was linked to lower odds of suicide-related behaviors among LGB students and safety concerns and illicit drug use among heterosexual students.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that LGBTQ-supportive school policies and practices are significantly associated with improved psychosocial health outcomes among both LGB and heterosexual students, although more research is needed to better understand these relationships.
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The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Copyright 2022, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers.
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Published online: 5 January 2022
Published in print: January 2022
Published ahead of print: 17 December 2021
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W.K. contributed to data management, analysis, and interpretation and took the lead on writing the article. J.L. contributed to data management, analysis, and interpretation and participated in the literature review and writing of the article. A.C.C. contributed to data management, analysis, and interpretation and participated in the literature review and writing of the article. L.R. contributed to data management, analysis, and interpretation and revised and edited the article. All co-authors reviewed and approved the article before submission.
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No competing financial interests exist.
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