TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Educating for diversity: an evaluation of a sexuality diversity workshop to address secondary school bullying
JO  - Australasian psychiatry
A1  - Lucassen, Mathijs Fg
A1  - Burford, James
SP  - 544
EP  - 549
VL  - 23
IS  - 5
N2  - OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the potential of a 60-minute sexuality diversity workshop to address bullying in secondary schools. <br><br>METHODS: Students completed pre- and post-workshop questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise results with pre- to immediate post-workshop changes compared using t-tests. Thematic analysis was used to analyse open-ended questionnaire responses. <br><br>RESULTS: We had 229 students (mean age 13.7 years) attending 10 workshops participate in the study. Three-quarters of students thought the workshop would reduce bullying in schools, and over 95% of the participants thought that other secondary schools should offer the workshop. There was a significant increase in valuing (p < 0.001) and understanding (p < 0.001) sexuality-diverse individuals (e.g. lesbian, gay and bisexual people), between the pre- and post-workshop results. School climates were largely perceived to be 'hard' and included 'bullying/mocking' of sexuality-diverse students; however, many individual students reported a desire to be supportive of their sexuality-diverse peers. <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: Sexuality-based bullying is commonplace in secondary schools. This form of bullying is associated with depression and suicide attempts. Reducing sexuality-based bullying is very likely to have a positive impact on the mental health of young people. Brief workshops, as a part of a wider suite of interventions, have some potential to create safer school environments.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1039-8562
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1039856215592324
ID  - ref1
ER  -