It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time, reports a story today in HuffPost.
“The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls. The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.
“In both countries, a ‘sea change’ in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.
“That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.
“In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the ‘It Gets Better’ video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.
“’Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender,’and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. ‘In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better.’”
For more, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/gay-teen-bullying-study-england-it-gets-better_n_2614529.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices