A socioecological review of LGBTQI+ adolescent bias-based bullying: What characterizes a bystander, and where do we go from here?

Abstract

Introduction

One way to support mental health among LGBTQI+ adolescents is by bystander intervention during bias-based bullying. We use an adolescent-focused socio-ecological framework to identify what characterizes an active bystander in bias-based bullying toward LGBTQI+ individuals.

Method

Using PRIMSA guidelines, seven databases yielded 6777 papers which were refined to 23 overall—11 on adolescent peer defending behavior, and 12 on school professional’s (SP) defending behavior.

Results

For adolescents, friendship with victims and peers, social norms, intrapersonal attitudes, and school professional’s self-efficacy were associated with active bystanding.

Conclusion

There is a shared responsibility in school environments to defend LGBTQI+ adolescents in bullying incidents to improve long-term mental and physical health trajectories for this community.

Keywords:

• LGBT+
• adolescence
• young people
• school
• defending
• systematic review

Ethics statement

Ethical approval was not required for this review.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

As this is a systematic review, the authors do not hold access to individual study’s data beyond what is publicly available in the published article.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.