The association between bullying and physical health among gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals.
BACKGROUND
Research suggests that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations experience higher prevalence of school bullying than heterosexuals.


OBJECTIVE
We examined if (a) verbal versus physical bullying were differentially associated with physical health among sexual minorities and (b) if sexual identity (i.e., homosexual [i.e., lesbian/gay] vs. bisexual) moderated the association of bullying on physical health.


METHODS
LGB adults aged 18 to 66 years (n = 463) were recruited online. Participants reported high school experiences of verbal and physical bullying and physician-diagnosed health conditions.


RESULTS
Physical and verbal bullying were related to physical health conditions (ps < .01). Physical bullying had a significant negative impact on physical health for bisexual persons (p < .001) but not for gay/lesbian persons.


CONCLUSIONS
Experiencing bullying in high school was associated with physical health problems in adulthood. Bullying had a different relationship with health problems for bisexually identified individuals compared to lesbian/gay individuals. Future research should strive to disentangle potential differences in the relationship between bullying and health within sexual minority groups.
Christopher Zou, MA, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Christopher
C
Zou
Judith P
JP
Andersen
John R
JR
Blosnich
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001727:Bisexuality / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017678:Sex Distribution; D055815:Young Adult
bisexuality; bullying; gay; lesbian; physical health