Driven to the edge

Bullying at school can have serious, even tragic consequences, as a new study has once again highlighted. A study of 190 gay and lesbian British adults found that they were so badly bullied at school that 40 per cent of them attempted suicide. Almost one-third of the group attempted suicide or self-harm on more than one occasion. The average number of attempts was four. In all, 54 per cent said that they contemplated suicide as a result of school bullying.

Putting this in perspective, researcher Ian Rivers of the University of Luton said that a Canadian study found that 62.5 per cent of all suicide attemptees were lesbian or gay, which suggests that they are in a high-risk category.

The results of the three-year study into the long-term impact of peer victimisation in adolescence upon the well-being of lesbian, gay and bisexual adults were presented at recent annual conference in Ennis of the Psychological Society of Ireland. Dr Geraldine Moane of UCD said that available research would clearly indicate prejudice and discrimination against gays and lesbians exist in Irish society.

She pointed to a 1995 Combat Poverty study which found that 57 per cent of gays and lesbians experienced teasing at school; 51 per cent did not attend discos or sport while at school and 25 per cent were physically assaulted.

The most common type of bullying described by Rivers' study was name calling, which was mentioned by 82 per cent of those surveyed. Almost 60 per cent had rumours spread about them, while 60 per cent were hit or kicked and 27 per cent said that nobody would talk to them. "It was quite interesting that a large number of people said that simply being looked or stared at was the enough to put the fear of God into them," he adds.

Almost 70 per cent of participants said that they were regularly bullied in the classroom while two-thirds recalled being bullied in the corridors between lessons. Just over half said that they were bullied in changing rooms before and after sport.

The past 10 years have seen a wealth of research on bullying at school, notes Rivers. Ensuring that a child or young person is safe in school has become an objective teachers have actively had to aim towards as society has gradually become more litigious, he adds.

"Yet, despite our increased awareness of bullying in schools, there remains a great deal of reticence in addressing issues such as homonegativism in the classroom because it ultimately seeks to `normalise' or make acceptable the sexual behaviour of men and women who are attracted to members of their own gender."

While the study presents a bleak picture of life at school for gay and lesbian students, some hope is offered. As adults (the average age of the participants was 29 years), the study's participants exhibited symptoms associated with depressive tendencies but they did not suffer from low self-esteem and had a positive attitude towards their homosexuality or bisexuality.

Rivers carried out an in-depth study of 20 participants. "When I asked them about their experiences they said `yes, it was a traumatic experience but to a certain extend I'm stronger as an adult because of what I had to put with as a child' . . . the process of growing up and coming out is very difficult but, at the end, these people were much happier than people who didn't have to confront their sexuality at an early age. The group was remarkably introspective and very self-aware."

The overall sample of 190 people studied were selfselected in that they volunteered to take part in the study. So, they may represent the worst end of the spectrum when it comes to bullying. Rivers says that a study conducted in London in the mid-Eighties suggests that about one in four gays and lesbians were bullied at school. His own intuition is that this is a conservative estimate and the real incidence may be as high as one-in-two.

As to the solution, Rivers says, "I don't think homophobia should be dealt with as a separate issue. What I would very much like to see is schools taking an integrated approach to all forms of victimisation and bullying whether it's because of gender, colour or religious belief. One of the things that is clear is that, if you identify an area for special consideration, it becomes an issue that fundamental groups react against. If integrated, you can tackle the issue effectively and not highlight individuals."

In a separate paper at the same symposium, Dr Teresa Burke, of UCD, said that the issue of sexuality and sexual orientation were often not covered adequately in undergraduate psychology education. Sexuality was often covered within the context of biological explanations.

"The broad general area of sexuality needs to be dealt with at undergraduate level across a range of subjects from developmental to social psychology," she said.