BACKGROUND: Research suggests that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations experience higher prevalence of school bullying than heterosexuals.
OBJECTIVES: 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.
Design: 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.