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Psychological distress mediates the link between bullying and truancy in Australian LGBQ+ adolescents with experiences of homelessness
Lim, Gene Melendez-Torres, G. J. Amos, Natalie Anderson, Joel Norman, Thomas Power, Jennifer Jones, Jami Bourne, Adam
Lim, Gene
Melendez-Torres, G. J.
Amos, Natalie
Anderson, Joel
Norman, Thomas
Power, Jennifer
Jones, Jami
Bourne, Adam
Abstract
Homelessness is a high prevalence experience among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ+) youth, and potentiates both significant morbidity and future homelessness. While educational attainment is cited as a structural solution to homelessness, limited research exists on homeless LGBQ+ youths’ schooling experiences. A nationwide, cross-sectional survey involving 4,370 cisgender LGBQ+ participants aged 14–21 was conducted to address this gap. Regression analyses showed previous homelessness was associated with an increased odds of verbal, physical and sexual bullying and harassment within school contexts. Mediation analyses confirmed the mediating role of psychological distress on the associations between physical and sexual harassment and truancy, regardless of past homelessness. Previous experiences of homelessness are not associated with increased distress in relation to bullying or harassment. However, the indirect effect of harassment on truancy was significantly more pronounced for youth with past homelessness. Our findings crucially suggest that bullying presents both direct and indirect structural risks to cisgender LGBQ+ youth, and is particularly inconducive to continued engagement with schooling for youth with experiences of homelessness. Interventions aiming to address truancy among this group should aim to reduce the incidence of bullying within educational settings, whilst also providing assistance for managing the challenges associated with experiencing homelessness.
Keywords
LGBTQ+, young people, adolescents, truancy, homelessness, bullying, Australia
Date
2025
Type
Journal article
Journal
Psychology and Sexuality
Book
Volume
16
Issue
1
Page Range
42-56
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Behavioural and Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.