Abstract
Objective:
To elucidate the acceptability of sexual minorities according to Japanese youth, we conducted a survey targeting university students.
Methods:
Participants were second- to fourth-year students (n=945) at Ibaraki University, Japan, who were randomly chosen for the survey to measure their attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. We divided the respondents into two groups: one group who had encounters with LGBT people, and one group with no such experience. Chi-square tests were used to compare responses between the groups.
Results:
More than 60% of the students considered LGBT people to be acceptable; the group with prior encounters had greater levels of acceptance compared to the group without such encounters.
Conclusion:
This is the first study to clarify the acceptability of sexual minorities among university students in Japan. Our data suggested that having contact with LGBT people in school life may help build an inclusive educational system.
Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that no honorarium, grant, or other form of payment was given to anyone to produce this manuscript and that there have been no prior publications or submissions with any overlapping information, including studies and patients. The authors have contributed substantially to the submitted work; they have reviewed it and agreed with the submission of the manuscript.
References
1. Levine DA, Committee on Adolescence. Office-based care for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Pediatrics 2013;132:e297–313.10.1542/peds.2013-1283Search in Google Scholar PubMed
2. Sentenac M, Gavin A, Molcho M, Molcho M, Due P, et al. Peer victimization and subjective health among students reporting disability or chronic illness in 11 Western countries. Eur J Public Health 2013;23:421–6.10.1093/eurpub/cks073Search in Google Scholar PubMed
3. Olson J, Schrager SM, Belzer M, Simons LK, Clark LF. Baseline physiologic and psychosocial characteristic of transgender youth seeking care for gender dysphoria. J Adolesc Health 2015;57:374–80.10.1016/j.jadohealth.2015.04.027Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central
4. Reisner SL, Conron KJ, Tardiff LA, Jarvi S, Gordon AR, et al. Monitoring the health of transgender and other gender minority populations: validity of natal sex and gender identity survey items in a U.S. national cohort of young adults. BMC Public Health 2014;14:1224.10.1186/1471-2458-14-1224Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central
5. Sequeira GM, Chakraborti C, Panunti BA. Integrating lesbian, gay, and transgender (LGBT) contents into undergraduate medical school curricula: a qualitative study. Ochsner J 2012;12:379–82.Search in Google Scholar
6. Kolbert JB, Crothers LM, Wells DS, Buzgon J, Berbary C, et al. Teachers’ Perceptions of Bullying of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) Students in a Southwestern Pennsylvania Sample. Behav Sci 2015;5: 247–63.10.3390/bs5020247Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central
©2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston