Dating Violence and Peer Victimization Among Male, Female, Transgender, and Gender-Expansive Youth.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Transgender adolescents experience disproportionately high rates of dating violence and peer victimization. However, research has relied on small samples of transgender youth and has not captured victimization experiences of gender-expansive youth (who do not identify as male, female, or transgender). In the current study, we address these limitations, comparing victimization by gender.

METHODS

We examined a subsample of 4464 male, female, transgender, and gender-expansive youth (1116 per group) from the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey who were frequency matched on grade, race, geographic region, and free or reduced lunch status. Prevalence of self-reported verbal, physical, and cyber peer victimization and physical and psychological dating violence was calculated. Adjusted prevalence ratios were obtained by using log-binomial regression.

RESULTS

The highest rates across all forms of victimization were reported among transgender (15.6%-51.6%) and gender-expansive (13.2%-41.4%) youth. Transgender youth had a 2.09 to 2.96 times higher frequency of victimization than male youth and a 1.34 to 2.65 times higher frequency of victimization than female youth. Transgender youth also had higher frequencies of specific forms of victimization than gender-expansive youth. Gender-expansive youth had a 1.83 to 2.61 times higher frequency of victimization than male youth and 1.18 to 2.35 times higher frequencies of most forms of victimization than female youth.

CONCLUSIONS

Disparities in dating violence and peer victimization rates exist among transgender and gender-expansive adolescents compared with male and female youth. The distinct experiences of transgender and gender-expansive youth should be considered in school policies and violence prevention programs.