Homophobic name-calling among secondary school students: understanding it to prevent it

As a form of bullying behavior, homophobic name-calling (HNC) is quite common in schools. Several studies found that victims of HNC reported greatest risks for several mental health problems. Therefore, understanding predictors of HNC perpetration is an important first step to prevent it. For this study, 311 students from 10 secondary schools in Rome were recruited through the participation to the city-based anti-homophobic bullying project “lecosecambiano@roma-2”. Participants indicated how often they use HNC (0 = never, 4 = more than once per week) and, through a series of scales, could report their attitudes toward gay men and lesbians, how often they hear homophobic language at school and see teachers behaving in a way considered stigmatizing. A zero-inflated binomial regression was used to simultaneously estimate variables associated to absence/presence and frequency of HNC. The incidence-rate ratios (IRR) were used to interpret findings. Results show that the effects of negative attitudes toward gay men (IRR = .27, p = .027) and hearing homophobic language at school (IRR = .48, p = .006) were significantly associated with presence of HNC. Male gender (IRR = 2.36, p = .019) and witnessing teachers’ stigmatizing behaviors (IRR = 1.29, p = .018) were significantly associated with higher frequency of HNC whereas negative attitudes toward gay men (IRR = 1.05, p = .234) and hearing homophobic language (IRR = 1.19, p = .995) were not significant. Findings show that HNC is closely related to homophobia and rooted in masculinity and the school climate has an important role both in presence/absence and frequency of HNC behaviors. On the one hand, homophobic language at school divides line between presence and absence of HNC. On the other hand, teachers’ stigmatizing behaviors represents a risk factor increasing the frequency of HNC behaviors, perhaps because they make it acceptable and licit. The implications for future research and interventions will be discussed.