This page defines several terms related to homophobic bullying in and near schools as well as the related implications and impact of such bullying on the educational achievement, mental health, safety and sexual health on affected students, including all students. This initial collection or research references, reports and resources on homophobic bullying has been started by the International School Health Network with funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

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Terms related to Sexual Orientation and Gender

Homophobia is the fear of homosexuals and homosexuality that can be expressed by feelings of discomfort in the presence of gays and lesbians, by rejecting them and by verbally or physically abusing them. Homophobia is often used as an umbrella term for all feelings of fear and dislike directed toward gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. Homophobia can be institutional, societal or internalised. Societal or cultural homophobia is the homophobia that permeates all aspect of social life and relates to the social and cultural norms that promote heterosexuality, gender norms and the discrimination against GLBT people. Homosexuality is always considered as “different”, to be welcomed, tolerated, or despised. The media, film, TV, books, holiday brochures, insurance companies, religious institutions and schools all back this up.

Institutional or organisational homophobia is systematic discrimination of GLBT people by government, business, employers, public services and other organizations. It happens when a company invites an employee and their husband or wife to an event, explicitly excluding same sex relationships or when the family membership to a fitness club only mentions opposite sex partnerships. This exclusion is not necessarily deliberate but means that institutions have not considered same sex partners as an option. In schools this can emerge in sex and relationships education sessions which tend to focus on heterosexuality as the accepted norm for all students.

Internalised homophobia happens when one integrates society’s ideas on homosexuality and turns this homophobia against her/himself or the against the GLBT community. Individuals that internalised homophobia will hate themselves for being gay, lesbian, bisexuals of transgender and will feel valued if they reject everything GLBT.

Heterosexism is the belief that heterosexuality is better and superior than homosexuality. In a heterosexist society, heterosexuality is more desirable, therefore, until proven otherwise it is assumed that people are heterosexuals.

(Source: Rainbow Centre, Canada)

Terms related to Bullying

Bullying includes a wide range of repetitive behaviours with the intent to cause harm. For example name calling, offensive comments, hitting, kicking and shoving, theft or harm to belongings, graffiti, coercion, spreading of harmful messages through gossip, sending or spreading messages and images through mobile phones and the internet, deliberate exclusion from play and isolation.

Bullying linked to prejudice and discrimination Bullying can also be linked to prejudicial behaviour or targeting of certain individuals or groups – for example homophobicbullying, bullying of children with special educational needs and disabilities, bullying related to health conditions and allergies, bullying related to race and religion, bullying of children in care, bullying of children who care for their parents or their siblings (young carers), and gender based bullying (e.g. targeting of trans-young people or sexist bullying).

Sexual bullying Sexual bullying is any behaviour with a sexual element that is harmful, non-consensual and repeated. For example this could include sexual comments and name-calling, spreading of sexual rumours, use of technology to spread sexual gossip, comments or images, exposing body parts and non-consensual touch (e.g. touching body parts, pulling bra straps, raising skirts, pulling down trousers).

Cyberbullying The development of internet and mobile phone technology has provided different tools and methods for bullying others that we call cyberbullying.However, fundamentally it is driven by the same behaviour and motivation as any form of bullying. Cyberbullying can include sending or posting of harmful messages, comments and images online or through mobile phones, exclusion form social networking and impersonating of others to cause harm.

Bullying and crime There are times that bullying behaviour becomes criminal - but not all bullying behaviour is criminal. Some examples of bullying behaviour that could be considered criminal include:

- threatening or actual physical assault
- threatening or actual sexual assault
- the use of technology to bully and harass
- theft
- coercing others to commit a crime
- hate crime (e.g. racism)

Impacts of Bullying: Bullying has an impact on those that are being bullied, those that do the bullying, the bystanders observing the bullyhing and the surrounding neighbourhoods, community or schools in which the bullying takes place

(Source: Adapted from Anti-Bullying Alliance, England, UK and PREVNET, Canada)


Terms related to Educational Achievement



Terms related to Mental Health

Identity Formation: Self-conceptor self-identity is the sum total of a being's knowledge and understanding of his or her self. The self-concept is different fromself-consciousness, which is an awareness of one's self. Components of the self-concept include physical, psychological, and social attributes, which can be influenced by the individual's attitudes, habits, beliefs and ideas. These components and attributes can not be condensed to the general concepts ofself-imageand theself-esteem.

In sociology,gender identitydescribes the gender with which a person identifies (i.e., whether one perceives oneself to be a man, a woman, or describes oneself in some less conventional way), but can also be used to refer to the gender that other people attribute to the individual on the basis of what they know from gender role indications (social behavior, clothing, hair style, etc.). Gender identity may be affected by a variety of social structures, including the person's ethnic group, employment status, religion or irreligion, and family.

Interpersonal identity development is composed of three elements:

• Categorisation: Labeling others (and ourselves) into categories.
• Identification: Associating others with certaingroups.
• Comparison: Comparing groups.

Interpersonal identity development allows an individual to question and examine various personality elements, such as ideas, beliefs, and behaviors. Social influences by the actions or thoughts of others change an individual. Examples of social influence can be seen in socialisation and peer pressure. This is the effect of other people on a person's behavior. Interpersonal identity development occurs during exploratory self-analysis and self-evaluation ending at various time with the establishment of an easy-to-understand and consolidative sense of self or identity.
Individuals gain asocial identityandgroup identityby their affiliation. This is frommembership in various groups. These groups include, among various categories,:family,ethnic background, education and occupation, friendship,dating,sex roles and religion
Developmental Stages
Theories of developmental stages: Indevelopmental psychology, astage is a distinct phase in an individual's development. Many theories in psychology characterise development in terms of stages.Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, expanding on Freud's psychosexual stages, defined eight stages that describe how individuals relate to their social world.James W. Fowler's stages of faith development is seen as a holistic orientation and is concerned with the individual's relatedness to the universal.Sigmund Freud's psychosexual stages describe the progression of an individual's unconscious desires.Lawrence Kohlberg's stages of moral development to describe how individuals develop in reasoning about morals.Jane Loevingerdeveloped a theory with stages of ego development.Margaret Mahler's psychoanalytic developmental theory contained three phases regarding the child's object relations.Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development to describe how children reason and interact with their surroundings.James Marcia's theory focuses on identity achievement and has four identity statuses.Maria Montessori's sensitive periods of development is concerned with the series of leaps in learning during the preschool year

(Source: Wikipedia)