To evaluate the effectiveness of specific strategies for reducing homophobic bullying, Mark Hatzenbuehler will take advantage of an unprecedented multi-source, multi-level data structure that links legal, administrative, and survey data from teachers, schools, and communities with a population-based study of over 5 million California high-school students (obtained from the California Healthy Kids Survey) in nearly 3,000 schools spanning a fifteen-year period. With his mentors, Stephen T. Russell, professor of child development at the University of Texas at Austin, and Suzanne Goldberg, professor of law and director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Law at Columbia University, Hatzenbuehler will develop skills in new methods and research settings, as well as further grow his knowledge of structural levers for addressing inequality for youth.
Are litigation and agency enforcement of civil rights protections in schools effective in reducing homophobic bullying? If so, why are they effective, and for which schools?
