Now Here Is A Surprise, I Would Never Have Guessed…

A researcher from the University of Arizona found that when students are bullied they suffer depression more often. Surprise! I would never have guessed. The article is in journal Developmental Psychology as reported on PschoOrg.com,

Study links bullying to depression, other adult ailments

Two University of Arizona family studies researchers are co-authors of new study that has found that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, or LGBT, youth who do not conform to societal gender norms can have compromised mental health that is clearly linked to the bullying and harassment they receive in school.
[…]
Analyzing data from the Family Acceptance Project young adult survey, Stephen T. Russell and Russell Toomey examined the school-related experiences of 245 LGBT young adults, ages 21 to 25. They found that LGBT young adults who did not socially conform to gender roles as adolescents reported higher levels of anti-LGBT victimization, with significantly higher levels of depression and decreased life satisfaction in young adulthood.
[…]
Their research, they said, shows that the negative impact of anti-LGBT school victimization affects both quality of life and the LGBT young adult's capacity to enjoy life. Most crucially, the findings show that anti-LGBT bullying in school largely accounts for this psychological harm.

This comes at no surprise, we see the same thing in all marginalized community. When someone stands out from the crowd, they are persecuted for their differences, whether it is because of their gender identity or presentation, race, gender, weight, height or any other differences.

Their conclusion is no surprise either…

Toomey added: "Clearly, gender-nonconforming and LGBT students need protections in schools that are specific to their sexual orientation and gender identities to interrupt the strong link between bias-victimization and poorer mental health."

As I said before, the only way that we are going to end bullying is if we all speak up. We need to tell schools that it is no longer Okay to look the other way, you must be pro-active in stopping bullying and harassment. I know that I have been talking about this a lot lately, but it seems like we now have a change to bring national attention to the problem of bullying, it only took five tragic deaths.