Middle School Music Ensemble Participation, Homophobic Name-Calling, and Mental Health

Homophobic name-calling is commonplace in middle schools and is emerging as an antecedent to more serious, deleterious concerns, including depressive or anxious symptoms among youth. While music education researchers suggest that youth enrolled in music ensembles are targets for homophobic epitaphs,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Youth & society 2020-10, Vol.52 (7), p.1238-1258
Main Authors: Rawlings, Jared R., Espelage, Dorothy L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescents
Anxiety
At Risk Students
Bullying
Depression (Psychology)
Early Adolescents
Grade 6
Grade 7
Health status
Homophobia
Incidence
LGBTQ People
Mental depression
Mental Health
Middle School Students
Middle schools
Music
Music Activities
Music Education
Participation
Peer Relationship
Predictor Variables
Social Bias
Student Attitudes
Student Behavior
Symptoms
Teasing
Victimization
Victims
Youth
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Summary:Homophobic name-calling is commonplace in middle schools and is emerging as an antecedent to more serious, deleterious concerns, including depressive or anxious symptoms among youth. While music education researchers suggest that youth enrolled in music ensembles are targets for homophobic epitaphs, little is known about how experiencing homophobic teasing during early adolescence relates to their self-reported mental health. Using data from a large-scale investigation of middle school youth, we examined the prevalence of homophobic name-calling and its relationship on indicators of mental health, including depression and anxiety. Results indicate that being a target of homophobic victimization has significant mental health consequences for youth in the current sample, although differentially for youth participating in a music ensemble and those who do not. Music ensembles are complex social environments, and our results raise questions about how prevalent or localized homophobic epitaphs are for youth enrolled in music ensembles when compared with those who are not.
ISSN:0044-118X
1552-8499
DOI:10.1177/0044118X19866071