ABSTRACT

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) youth report hostile school climates and sexuality-based harassment, but scholarship has not clearly documented how these climates might be associated with college aspirations among this population. Given college has become a common aspiration for many high school youths, we sought to explore subgroup differences in college aspirations among LGBTQ youth, and whether or not LGBTQ-specific community factors, such as Gender Sexuality Alliances (GSA) presence and teacher support, were related to college aspirations. To do this, we analysed a large sample (N = 11,327, Mage = 15.57) of LGBTQ youth from across the United States. We compared college aspirations across subgroups of youth via bivariate and multivariable logistic regression models to explore how school factors (i.e., presence of GSAs and LGBTQ-specific teacher supportiveness) were associated with college aspirations among LGBTQ youth. We found that transgender youth were less likely to aspire to go to college compared to cisgender counterparts. Additionally, more common sexual minority subgroups (e.g., gay/lesbian) were less likely to aspire to go to college compared to their counterparts with more emergent identity labels (e.g., asexual, queer). The presence of GSAs and higher reports of LGBTQ-supportive teachers were associated with increased odds of aspiring to go to college across all LGBTQ youth in our sample. These findings have implications for how schools and teachers prepare sexual and gender minorities for college. The findings imply that LGBTQ populations should not be treated as monolithic in their college readiness, preparation, and aspirations.

摘要

女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别者和酷儿/质疑 (LGBTQ) 青年报告了敌对的学校氛围和基于性的骚扰，但奖学金没有明确记录这些氛围如何与这一人群的大学愿望相关联。鉴于大学已成为许多高中青年的共同愿望，我们试图探索 LGBTQ 青年中大学愿望的亚组差异，以及 LGBTQ 特定的社区因素，如性别性联盟 (GSA) 的存在和教师支持，是否是关系到大学的愿望。为此，我们分析了来自美国各地的 LGBTQ 青年的大量样本（N = 11,327，Mage = 15.57）。我们通过双变量和多变量逻辑回归模型比较了不同青年亚群的大学志向，以探索学校因素（即，GSA 的存在和 LGBTQ 特定教师的支持）与 LGBTQ 青年的大学志向相关。我们发现，与顺性别青少年相比，跨性别青少年不太可能渴望上大学。此外，与具有更多新兴身份标签（例如，无性恋、酷儿）的同行相比，更常见的性少数群体（例如，男同性恋/女同性恋）不太可能渴望上大学。GSA 的存在和支持​​ LGBTQ 的教师的更高报告与我们样本中所有 LGBTQ 青年渴望上大学的几率增加有关。这些发现对学校和教师如何为性少数和性别少数群体准备上大学产生了影响。调查结果表明，LGBTQ 人群在大学准备、准备和抱负方面不应被视为铁板一块。