This document summarizes research on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and questioning (LGBQ) youth in schools compared to their straight peers. The researchers found that among 19,551 students surveyed, those who reported having adult support at their school reported more positive social experiences and less risk-taking behavior than LGBQ peers who lacked adult support. Charts show that across various outcomes like feelings of safety, school avoidance, binge drinking, discrimination, sense of belonging, and liking school, LGBQ youth with adult support fared better than those without. The results confirm the importance of adult support for the well-being of secondary students.

1. Adult Support in School: Does It Make a Difference for LGBQ Youth?
Lina Darwich and Shelley Hymel, Terry Waterhouse and Amy Prevost
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA U NIVERSITY OF THE FRASER VALLEY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Prepared for the Safe Schools Survey Research Symposium, University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, BC, 25 March 2009. The authors wish to express their appreciation
to the Edith Lando Charitable Foundation and the British Columbia Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General - Crystal Meth Secretariat as well as the SSHRC
Science Prevention Cluster for their support for this research, and to the staff and students of the participating school districts for their cooperation.
Across British Columbia (BC), between 1% and 6% of youth enrolled in grade 7 through 12 identify their sexual orientation as lesbian, gay, bisexual or questioning (LGBQ) (Saewyc, Poon,
Wang, Homma, Smith, & the McCreary Centre Society, 2007). Like their heterosexual peers, LGBQ youth need to feel connected to their schools. As a result of homophobia, the extant
research shows that LGBQ youth are more likely to report being victimized and less likely to report a sense of belonging to their schools than their heterosexual peers (D’Augelli, Pilkington,
& Hershberger, 2002). In this study, however, we found that LGBQ youth who reported having some adult support at school, reported far more positive social experiences and less risk
taking behaviour than their peers who reported a lack of adult support. The youth were grade 8 through 12 students enrolled in a single, large, urban BC school district who undertook an
extensive self-evaluation of student social experiences at school in 2006. The graphs below summarize some of our findings. Out of 19,551 students, 18,832 reported their sexual orientation:
1% (n = 236) Lesbian/ Gay (L/G), 3% (n=592) Bisexual (B), 8% (n=1426) Questioning (Q), and 88% (n=16,572) Straight (S). The YELLOW charts display the reported experiences of every
sexual orientation group in terms of school avoidance, binge drinking, sexual orientation-based discrimination, sense of safety at school, and sense of school belonging. Each yellow chart has
a corresponding PURPLE and BLUE chart that takes a closer look at the differences in every sexual orientation group between the students who reported the presence of adult support
(YES) and the students who reported the lack of adult (NO) support for every variable. Across outcome variables, results confirm the importance of adult support for secondary students,
I Feel Safe at School (Most Times/Always)
%ofStudentsSafeatSchool
Sexual Orientation
Adult Support and Feelings of Safety
Sexual Orientation
%ofStudentsSafeatSchool
I Skipped School All Day
(More than Once a Week)
Sexual Orientation
%ofStudentsSkippedSchoolAllDay
Adult Support and Skipping School
(More than Once a Week)
%ofStudentsSkippedSchoolAllDay
Sexual Orientation
Binge Drinking at School
(Every Week or More)
%ofStudentsBingeDrinking
Sexual Orientation
Adult Support and Binge Drinking at School
(Every Week or More)
%ofStudentsBingeDrinking
Sexual Orientation
%ofSODStudents
Sexual Orientation
Victims of Sexual Orientation Discrimination
(SOD) (at Least Once a Week or More)
Adult Support and
Sexual Orientation Discrimination
%ofSODStudents
Sexual Orientation
School Belonging
(Agree/Strongly Agree)
%ofStudentswithSenseofBelonging
Sexual Orientation
Adult Support and
Student Sense of School Belonging
%ofStudentswithSenseofBelonging
Sexual Orientation
I Like School
(Agree/Strongly Agree)
Adult Support and Students Liking School
(Agree/Strongly Agree)
Sexual Orientation Sexual Orientation
%ofStudentswhoLikeSchool
%ofStudentswhoLikeSchool
45%
67%
66%
82%
28%
6% 6%
2%
28%
8% 5%
1%
26%
4% 3% 0.4%
32%
41% 44%
58%
34%
43% 47%
50%
20%
85%
30% 28%
82%
55%
90%
52%
12%
24%
2%
21%
1%
7%
1%
53%
8%
24%
3%
18%
1%
6%
0.4%
44%
18% 18%
1%
14%
0.6% 3% 0.1%
76%
9%
61%
20%
56%
15%
67%
27%
73%
13%
64%
14%
62%
14%
64%67%
21%