‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ World Anti-Bullying Forum 2025

Strength in Connection: Exploring Factors to Empower Youth Experiencing Identity-Based Bullying

12 Jun 2025, 10:00

1h 30m

Stavanger Forum

Symposium Bias-based forms of bullying and cyberbullying Room: Lysefjorden B

Speakers

Dr Ann Farrell (Brock University)Dr Deinera Exner-Cortens (University of Calgary)Dr Irene Vitoroulis (University of Ottawa) Kyla Mayne (Queen's University)Dr Seçil Gönültaş (Bilkent University)

Description

This symposium explores the multifaceted dynamics of identity-based bullying and social safety, emphasizing the mental and physical health outcomes for bullied youth with various intersecting marginalized identities. The papers draw from varied samples and methods, including large-scale survey data, multilevel path analyses, and structural equation modeling, to unravel how school policies, social support, and social-cognitive factors shape youth resilience in the face of identity-based bullying.

The opening paper by Mayne and Craig introduces a strength-based lens, examining how social safety – through social connection, inclusion, and protection – may buffer bullied, gender diverse youth against adverse health outcomes. Farrell and colleagues further this discourse, highlighting the role of effective school policies targeting identity-based bullying and their impact on mental health. Gönültaş and colleagues extend these findings by focusing on social exclusion of refugee youth, revealing how bystander justice sensitivity can be shaped by theory of mind, encouraging positive bystander interventions.

Vitoroulis and Craig’s paper continues this centering of bias-based bullying affecting migrant adolescents, underscoring the protective role of family, friend, and teacher support in reducing health and school-related stress. Lastly, Exner-Cortens and colleagues shed light on the intersections of gender, race, and weight in identity-based bullying, revealing elevated risks among gender-diverse, racialized youth and urging the necessity for intersectional interventions.

Together, these papers illuminate protective social environments and cognitive competencies as critical in countering the detrimental impacts of identity-based bullying. We argue for holistic, multi-level support systems and underscore the importance of inclusive, well-implemented school policies in safeguarding marginalized youth.

Additional field for symposia

1. Title. A Social Safety Shield: Exploring the Buffering Role of Social Safety on the Physical and Mental Health of Gender Diverse Adolescents Experiencing Bullying
   Authors. Kyla E. Mayne & Dr. Wendy M. Craig, Queen’s University
   Background. Youth who experience bullying are at greater risk of mental and physical health issues, with these disparities especially pronounced among gender diverse youth – those whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth. However, not all bullied youth experience negative health outcomes. Social safety, which includes social connection, inclusion, and protection, may buffer some of the harmful effects of bullying. This study examines whether social safety moderates the relationship between bullying and health, and whether this effect is stronger for gender diverse youth compared to cisgender youth.
   Methodology. We use the Canadian sample from the 2021/2022 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) study, comprising approximately 26,000 youth.
   Analytical Plan. A multilevel path analysis will be conducted in R i386 4.2.2. Gender will be a predictor of bullying victimization and social safety. The model includes gender and bullying as predictors, social safety as a moderator, and mental/physical health as outcome variables.
   Conclusion. This research shifts from a deficit-based approach focused on stress to a strength-based perspective, highlighting the role of social safety in reducing health disparities related to identity-based bullying.
2. Title: Perceived Effectiveness of School Policies: Associations with Identity-Based Bullying, Mental Health, Physical Health, and Stress
   Authors:
   Ann H. Farrell, Brock University, afarrell@brocku.ca
   Laura J. Lambe, St. Francis Xavier University, llambe@stfx.ca
   Deinera Exner-Cortens, University of Calgary, deinera.exner2@ucalgary.ca
   Wendy M. Craig, Queen’s University, wendy.craig@queensu.ca
   Brett Holfeld, Memorial University of Newfoundland, bholfeld@mun.ca
   Alexa Martin-Storey, Université de Sherbrooke, Alexa.Martin-Storey@USherbrooke.ca
   Abstract:
   Identity-based bullying is when an individual is intentionally and repeatedly harmed due to their perceived social identity, including perceived race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, weight, and/or gender identity. One social setting that can exacerbate or mitigate identity-based bullying is the school. Schools that have anti-bullying policies often report lower prevalence rates of bullying. However, the extent to which the perceived effectiveness of these policies contribute to identity-based bullying and student health and well-being is less understood. Therefore, we examined the associations among perceived effectiveness of school policies on identity-based bullying and the prevalence of identity-based bullying, with mental health, physical health, and stress. In a sample of 1200 adolescents (Mage = 14.69; SD = 1.87), students reported on the perceived effectiveness of identity-based bullying school policies at their school, their experiences with identity-based bullying victimization, their mental health, physical health, and stress levels. Structural equation modeling revealed that perceptions of higher effectiveness of identity-based bullying school policies was associated with lower identity-based bullying and better health outcomes. Moreover, there were significant indirect effects, such that higher perceived effectiveness of policies was associated with lower identity-based bullying, which in turn was associated with lower mental health difficulties, lower physical health difficulties, and lower stress. Findings demonstrate the importance of not only having school policies specifically on identity-based bullying, but rather on promoting the implementation of effective policies for reducing identity-based bullying and improving adolescent health and well-being.
3. Title: How Does Theory of Mind Shape Bystander Judgments and Responses to Social Exclusion of Refugees Through Justice Sensitivity
   Authors:
   Seçil Gönültaş1 (secilgonultas@bilkent.edu.tr), presenting author
   Serengeti Ayhan1 (serengeti.ayhan@bilkent.edu.tr)
   Bilge Sena Çam1 (sena.cam@bilkent.edu.tr )
   1 Bilkent University
   Considering the negative effects of identity-based social exclusion on refugee children’s psychological well-being, physical health, and academic development, it is important to examine the factors that can reduce it. Earlier studies documented that social-cognitive competencies like theory of mind (ToM) and justice sensitivity are important to promote prosocial bystander responses. However, our knowledge is limited in understanding how different factors act in concert in bystander responses. Thus, we examined how adolescents’ ToM abilities are related to bystander judgments and responses through justice sensitivity and whether peer norms moderate this relationship.
   Data was collected from 248 middle school (Mage=11.57, 121 female) and 262 high school students (Mage=14.85, 176 female) aged between 10 and 17 years. Participants were presented with a hypothetical social exclusion scenario in which they either hear exclusionary peers norms or mixed peer norms. Participants were then asked about their reactions (direct) to exclusion and the likelihood that they themselves would invite refugee peers. Participants' ToM abilities and justice sensitivity were also assessed.
   Moderated mediation analyses showed that participants with higher ToM were more likely to report justice sensitivity, which in turn predicted a lower likelihood of perceiving social exclusion as acceptable and a higher likelihood of reporting inclusivity judgments and direct challenging. Interestingly, results showed the same patterns for exclusion and mixed norm conditions indicating no moderating effect.

Overall, these findings documented the interactions between social cognitive skills and bystander responses to identity-based social exclusion by providing implications for promoting positive intergroup relations for schools, NGOs and policymakers.
4.
Bias-based bullying, social support and student outcomes
1Irene Vitoroulis & 2Wendy Craig
1School of Psychology University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario; 2Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario
Bias-based bullying targeting a person’s ethnic/racial, cultural, or religious background disproportionately affects migrant adolescents’ well-being. Although it is increasingly recognized as an important form of bullying, there is limited knowledge about factors that can buffer against its negative consequences on health and school outcomes. In this paper, we examined the links between bias-based bullying and mental health, and the role of family, friend and teacher support in mitigating its impact on mental health, physical health, stress and feelings about school. Using data from the Canadian Health Behaviour in School-aged Children, with a sample of 2,796 foreign-born migrant students (83.6% racialized, Mage=14.22, SD=1.50) we examined the indirect effects of different sources of social support in the associations between bullying and each outcome using the PROCESS macro in SPSS. Controlling for age, race/ethnicity and sex, results indicated that bias-based bullying negatively predicted all outcomes. Tests of indirect effects showed that family relationships, friend and teacher support fully mediated the association between bias-based bullying and mental health. The indirect effects of family relationships and support, and teacher support partially mediated the association between bias-based bullying and health; and family relationships, friend support and teacher support partially mediated the association between bias-based bullying and feelings about school. There was also a significant indirect effect of family relationships on stress. Our results highlight the importance of different sources of support as protective against bullying, and are in line with the healthy immigrant effect, according to which family processes are protective against negative outcomes in students.
5.
Experiences of Identity-Based Bullying: Intersections Across Weight, Racialization, and Gender Identity
Authors:
Deinera Exner-Cortens, University of Calgary, deinera.exner2@ucalgary.ca
Wendy Craig, Queen’s University, wendy.craig@queensu.ca
Alexa Martin-Storey, Université de Sherbrooke, Alexa.Martin-Storey@USherbrooke.ca
Laura Lambe, St. Francis Xavier University, llambe@stfx.ca
Ann Farrell, Brock University, afarrell@brocku.ca
Brett Holfeld, Memorial University of Newfoundland, bholfeld@mun.ca
Introduction. Research on identity-based bullying has primarily considered single-identity categories, excluding experiences of multiply marginalized youth. Our objective is to explore experiences of identity-based bullying among youth who are marginalized based on gender and racial identity. Critical theories also point to how racialized and gender diverse bodies ‘violate’ White, cisgender norms, leading to potentially higher risk of weight-based bullying.
Methods. Data were collected from Canadian youth (N = 1123, Mage = 14.7). Youth were asked their gender identity and their racial/ethnic group. These variables were used to create six categories across gender and racial identities. All youth were asked if they had been bullied at school in the past few months based on their body weight, gender identity, or race/skin colour.
Results. Racialized youth, regardless of gender identity, were significantly more likely to report bullying based on race/skin colour than White youth (all p < .001), with gender diverse, racialized youth reporting the highest prevalence (36.0%). Gender diverse youth across racial identities were significantly more likely than cisgender youth to report bullying based on gender identity (p < .001), with gender diverse, racialized youth reporting the highest prevalence (32.0%). There were no significant differences in weight-based bullying across intersections of gender and racial identity.
Conclusion. In this sample, rates of weight-based bullying did not differ across intersections of gender and racial identity. However, gender diverse, racialized youth reported the highest rates of bullying based on both race/skin colour and gender identity, highlighting the need for intersectional supports.

Keywords

Identity-based Bullying; Social Safety; Mental Health; Intersectionality