Study shows which kids suffer the most from antigay language in youth sports & it’s not who you may think…
USA Today published the results of a 2014 project that tries to quantify the harm of antigay slurs on boys’ mental health. Two Michigan high school students came up with the concept.
They were mentored by a doctoral student. To collect data, they sent the survey to five area high schools–urban, suburban and rural–and asked students how often they were exposed to anti-LGBTQ+ insults in sports settings, along with corresponding questions regarding their self-esteem in the form of “agree” or “disagree” statements.
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.The results were clear cut: the more high school athletes were exposed to homophobic or misogynistic language, the less likely they were to reap the benefits of playing sports, particularly in regards to self-esteem.
While decreases in self-esteem were universal, the largest drop came among… straight white cisgender boys. “It harms the wellbeing of everyone,” said Laura Wernick, one of the study’s lead authors and professor at Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service.
