Asking for a friend: seeking teacher help for the homophobic harassment of a peer

Abstract

Homophobic name-calling is one of the most common forms of gender-based violence that occurs among young people at school. Yet students are reluctant to seek teacher help when homophobic bullying occurs. We investigated what enables bystanders to seek help from teachers when they witness the homophobic harassment of a peer who may be unwilling to seek help for themselves. Respondents were a sample of 2119 secondary students from 11 Australian schools. Data analysed using generalised mixed linear modelling demonstrated that student connectedness to teachers at the individual and school level were the strongest predictors of the likelihood of reporting the homophobic harassment of a peer. Find..