Navigating Overlapping Discrimination and Bullying in Schools: An Intersectional Analysis of Black Sexual and Gender Minority Youth

Background and Purpose

Schools are central contexts for adolescent development but may also operate as sites of discrimination and peer victimization, particularly for youth with marginalized identities. Black sexual and gender minority (SGM) students often experience overlapping racialized and SGM-related stressors that heighten vulnerability to bullying, yet national research examining these intersecting risks within school settings remains limited. Guided by minority stress theory and an intersectional framework, this study examined how perceived school-based racial discrimination, school connectedness, and SGM status are associated with in‑school and electronic bullying among Black high school students. The primary research question assessed whether these school-based factors predicted bullying experiences and how risk differed across intersecting identities.

Methods

This study employed a secondary analysis of data from the 2023 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a nationally representative survey of U.S. students in grades 9–12. The analytic sample was restricted to students who self‑identified as Black or African American (N = 2,619). SGM status was determined using measures of sexual identity and transgender identity. Independent variables included perceived school-based racial discrimination and school connectedness. Dependent variables were past‑year experiences of in‑school bullying and electronic bullying. Descriptive statistics and chi‑square tests examined group differences, followed by binary logistic regression analyses predicting each bullying outcome while controlling for age, sex, and weight status. Interaction terms were used to assess intersecting effects of sex and SGM status.

Results

Bivariate analyses indicated that SGM status was significantly associated with both in‑school and electronic bullying (p < .001). Although sexual majority students constituted a higher absolute number of bullying victims, SGM students were disproportionately represented relative to their proportion in the sample, indicating elevated risk. In multivariate analyses, perceived school‑based racial discrimination was a strong and consistent predictor of in‑school bullying (OR = 3.49) and electronic bullying (OR = 2.97). School connectedness was not significantly associated with either bullying outcome, suggesting that feeling close to others at school did not function as a protective factor in contexts characterized by racialized discrimination. Significant interaction effects further revealed that Black SGM male students experienced substantially higher odds of both in‑person and electronic bullying compared to sexual majority male peers.

Conclusions and Implications

Findings indicate that bullying risk among Black adolescents is not evenly distributed but concentrated at the intersection of race, gender, and SGM status, with school‑based racial discrimination functioning as a central contextual risk factor. Importantly, results suggest that school connectedness, as commonly measured, may reflect affiliation or engagement without ensuring safety or protection in inequitable school environments. For school social work, these findings underscore the need to move beyond promoting general belonging toward addressing structural racism, identity‑based discrimination, and culturally affirming school climates. Future research should employ multidimensional measures of school connectedness that capture cultural safety, trust in school institutions, and racial affirmation, particularly for Black SGM youth.