Abstract

LARRAIN MARINO, Enara; MOLLO-TORRICO, Juan Pablo  and  GARAIGORDOBIL LANDAZABAL, Maite. Personality traits and LGBT-phobic bullying: A review. Interdisciplinaria [online]. 2020, vol.37, n.2, pp.7-22. ISSN 1668-7027.  http://dx.doi.org/10.16888/interd.2020.37.2.1.

Bullying is a phenomenon that has been generating a great scientific interest during the last decade. However, there is still a large gap in research aimed at studying the bullying that is caused by the LGBT-phobia and the values of heterosexism. Nowadays, there are different anti-discrimination policies that promote tolerance and respect for sexual diversity. Nevertheless, people with non-normative orientation and sexual identity show greater vulnerability to suffer harassment and they have to face all kinds of challenges every day. Therefore, some authors have focused on conducting research with specific samples of LGBT people. To make us aware of the magnitude with which this phenomenon affects them, studies on the prevalence of bullying have shown a high use of homophobic insults regardless of orientation and sexual identity. In this sense, Mayock, Bryan, Carr & Kitching (2009) found that 40 % of the participants in their study had been victims of verbal attacks of a homophobic nature. In addition, recent reviews of epidemiological studies show that between 51 % and 80 % of LGBT people have suffered bullying due to their affective-sexual orientation and gender / sexual identity throughout their lives (Generelo, Garchitorena, Montero, & Hidalgo, 2012; Mayock et al., 2009; Martxueta & Etxeberria, 2014). In relation to cyberbullying, a recent systematic review yields data from 10.5 % to 71.3 % of victims of this type of phenomenon in the LGBT collective (Abreu & Kenny, 2017). There are studies that relate this phenomenon to mental health but there is less evidence about the relation between LGBT-phobic bullying, and personality characteristics and traits. In this line, it has been observed that LGBT-phobic bullying is related to anxiety, depression, traumatic stress, school absenteeism, suicidal ideation and suicide, drug use, criminal behavior, sexual risk behaviors, among other consequences (Birkett, Espelage & Koenig, 2009; Collier, 2014; Ferlatte et al., 2015; Gegenfurtner & Gebhardt, 2017; Martxueta, 2014; Mayock et al., 2009; Shields, Whitaker, Glassman, Franks & Howard, 2012; Tucker et al., 2016). Other researchers have observed that Emotional Intelligence (Garaigordobil & Oñederra, 2010) and empathy (Nolasco-Hernández, 2012) are related to lower levels of bullying perpetration and that, in addition, being a victim of bullying affects the satisfaction with life and self-esteem negatively (Estévez, Martínez-Ferrer & Musitu, 2006; Povedano, Hendry, Ramos & Varela, 2011). However, less research analyzes different personal variables and their relationship with LGBT-phobic bullying. Thus, the aim of this study is to carry out a review of the researches that analyze personality traits and characteristics in the LGBT community, and especially the connection between LGBT-phobic bullying and these variables. For this purpose, a systematic review has been carried out in the main databases of Psychology. The results of this review suggest that: (1) LGBT people show higher levels of empathy and lower levels of life satisfaction, psychological well-being and happiness; (2) empathy negatively correlates with the perpetration of LGBT-phobic bullying, and (3) being victim of this phenomenon is related with lower levels of self-esteem. This review has revealed that there is little evidence about this issue. The results indicate that LGBT people have a greater empathy that would positively affect both their own person and their environment. Nevertheless, the discrimination they suffer from day to day and the difficulty of finding their place in a heteronormative society negatively affect psychological well-being, happiness, satisfaction with life and self-esteem. It is essential to generate a scientific basis in order to carry out prevention and intervention programs. Finally, it is worth highlighting the lack of processing of these data in a meta-analysis as a limitation of this research. Therefore, further investigation in this line is suggested to reveal information that could be relevant in this area.

Keywords : LGBT-phobic bullying; Personality; Self-esteem; Empathy; Happiness..

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