High School Victimization Trends by Racial and Sexual Identity: Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2015–2023

Abstract

School-based victimization remains a pervasive issue, significantly impacting the well-being and academic success of students across the United States. Rates of SBV disproportionately affect youth from marginalized racial and sexual minority (LGBQ+) identities, defined here as students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, questioning, or other. Youth with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., Black and Lesbian) may face heightened rates of school-based victimization, compounding the risks associated with school environments. Using an intersectionality framework, this study analyzes five waves (2015–2023) of the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey to examine the relationships between student racial and sexual identities and school-based victimization to demonstrate trends over time. For racial minority LGBQ+ students, this issue is particularly alarming due to the compounding effects of discrimination, prejudice, and marginalization they experience. This research further integrates social determinants of health, highlighting the importance of addressing school-based victimization to safeguard the mental, emotional, and physical health of racial minority LGBQ+ students. Results demonstrate that aggregate trends for individual school-based victimization items are not universally present among all intersecting identities, suggesting a need for intersectional approaches to research and programming to create inclusive and equitable learning environments that foster educational growth and positive youth development for all students.

School-based violence remains a prevalent and persistent social and public health issue in the United States. Victimization incidents, such as bullying, threats, injury with a weapon, and school avoidance due to safety concerns, are widespread and represent a growing area of concern (Turanovic & Siennick, 2022). During the 2017–18 school year, 80% of public schools reported one or more instances of violence, and approximately 37 incidents of victimization occurred per 1,000 students aged 12–14 (Wang et al., 2020). In 2023, nearly 9% of high school students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon at school, 13% missed school at least once in the past month because they felt unsafe, and 19% reported being bullied (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023). School avoidance is linked to a range of negative outcomes, including mental health concerns, school dropout, and increased risk of suicide (Sobba, 2019). Of further concern, the incidence of fatal and non-fatal school shootings, or the occurrence of a firearm being discharged, brandished with intent to harm, or bullets hitting school property, has increased dramatically, rising from 18 victims in 2010 to 276 in 2024 (Duwe, 2020; Katsiyannis et al., 2023; Riedman, 2025). Firearm injuries have become the leading cause of death among U.S. children and teens, with an 87% increase in firearm-related fatalities over the past decade, with notable demographic differences emerging in school-based firearm carriage (Beltran-Silva & Teotia, 2026; Mannix et al., 2023; McCuddy et al., 2024).

While school-based violence affects students broadly, rates of victimization, or violent acts perpetrated against students at school or on their way to and from school, are not experienced equally across student populations (Flannery & Singer, 1999; Peguero, 2011). Researchers continuously demonstrate that school-based victimization rates disproportionately affect sexual and racial minority youth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023; Johns et al., 2020; Lowry et al., 2022; Olsen et al., 2014). For instance, sexual minority youth (i.e., youth whose sexual identities include but are not limited to lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer [LGBQ+]) experience higher rates of threat or injury with a weapon than their heterosexual peers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023; Olsen et al., 2014). Differences in prevalence of school-based victimization also emerge during examinations by racial identity, particularly among individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC; Rhee et al., 2017).

Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino youth consistently report the highest incidences of bullying among racial groups in school environments, according to national surveys and research (Rhee et al., 2017). However, the risk of bullying is even greater for students who have multiple marginalized identities, such as those who are both racial and sexual minorities. Research indicates that these ‘double minority’ youth are more likely to experience bullying than their peers who are solely racial minority heterosexuals or White sexual minorities, highlighting the cumulative risk arising from intersecting identities (Boyle & McKinzie, 2021; Peguero, 2012). Specifically, Boyle and McKinzie (2021) found that youth who identified as both sexual and racial minorities reported significantly higher levels of victimization than those belonging to only one of these marginalized groups, emphasizing the unique vulnerabilities faced by students at these intersections. Peguero (2012) similarly demonstrated that Latino and Black youth who also identified as sexual minorities experienced disproportionate rates of bullying, often linked to both their racial identity and sexual orientation. Further, Forber-Pratt et al. (2021) explored how high school student outcomes are shaped by the intersection of disability, race, and gender, results demonstrating that students holding multiple marginalized identities experienced the greatest disparities in achievement, discipline, and school belonging. These findings suggest that ignoring the intersectionality within victimization research may obscure the true extent of risk for certain student populations. Yet, most research investigating school-based victimization continues to focus on individual aspects of identity in isolation. Studies regularly examine either race or sexual orientation as separate categories when analyzing bullying, overlooking the compounded effects that intersecting identities can produce. Angoff and Barnhart, (2021) and Hancock and Daigle, (2021) are among the few exceptions, as both studies have called for more integrated approaches, demonstrating how youth at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities face distinct and heightened experiences of school victimization.

Understanding disparate rates of school-based victimization among sexual and racial minority youth is a preliminary step to developing safer schools. Such efforts are foundational to promoting academic achievement, student well-being, and prosocial behavior (DePaoli & McCombs, 2023; Mariani & Schiff, 2025; Osher et al., 2016). To build truly safe schools, educational systems must confront how overlapping sexual and racial identities expose marginalized youth to unique risks, and take deliberate action to address these intersecting forms of discrimination. To understand the current challenges in school safety, we first detail the issue of school-based victimization, then describe how students with different marginalized identities (e.g., sexual and racial minority youth) are disproportionately affected by this issue of school-based victimization.

School-based victimization

Adolescents spend most of their time in school, providing valuable learning opportunities, social interaction, and overall positive development. However, when adverse events such as school-based victimization occur, it undermines these opportunities (Basile et al., 2020). As a result, a deeper understanding of school-based victimization and its effects is needed (Gaffney et al., 2021). School-based victimization can induce a constant sense of fear and perceptions of school as an unpredictable environment, invoking anxiety (Oliphant et al., 2019). Further, school-based victimization can have detrimental effects on youth’s cognition about themselves (Frankenhuis et al., 2016). These negative cognitions and psychological stress may, in turn, deteriorate youth’s connections with peers and adults, expectations about their future (Gubbels et al., 2024), engagement with school (Borofsky et al., 2013; Bravo-Sanzana et al., 2022; Flannery et al., 2004), and, consequently, increase the risks of perpetrating victimization, including (Stoddard et al., 2011; Walters, 2021).

School-based victimization encompasses multiple dimensions, reflected in a range of characteristics and behaviors that are manifested across contexts (Asṭor & Benbenishty, 2019; Garner, 2014). To represent this multidimensionality, the current study conceptualizes school-based victimization using a multifaceted and holistic approach. Drawing upon dimensions that are measured through current surveys of student experiences of school-based violence (e.g., Youth Risk Behavior Survey), we include measures of victimization and school avoidance due to the threat of violence (Table 1). School safety is inherently complex, and addressing this requires comprehensive and coordinated strategies (Bradshaw et al., 2021). For instance, during the 2019–2020 school year, 60% of schools reported at least one physical attack or fight without a weapon, and 9% reported an attack involving a weapon on school grounds (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019).

Table 1.

School-based victimization measure.

Variable Name	Questionnaire Item	Original Survey Scale	Coding for analysis
School Avoidance	During the past 30 days, on how many days did you not go to school because you felt you would be unsafe at school or on your way to or from school?	0 days 1 day 2 or 3 days 4 or 5 days 6 or more days	≥ 1 time versus 0 times
Bullying Victimization	During the past 12 months, have you ever been bullied on school property?	Yes No	≥ 1 time versus 0 times
Weapon Threat Victimization	During the past 12 months, how many times has someone threatened or injured you with a weapon, such as a gun, knife, or club, on school property?	0 times 1 time 2 or 3 times 4 or 5 times 6 or 7 times 8 or 9 times 10 or 11 times 12 or more times	≥ 1 time versus 0 times

By beginning with a comprehensive definition of school-based victimization, we seek to clarify how this issue should be approached, identify contextual factors that may disproportionately affect groups of students, and ultimately contribute to the development of safe and supportive educational environments for all.

Inequities in school-based victimization

Sexual identity

Over recent years, an increasing number of young people are identifying as part of sexual minority groups (i.e., LGBQ+; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, 2021). In the most recent wave of YRBS data collection from 2023, approximately one in four students reported identifying as LGBQ+, up nearly 10% since 2019. This shift has, in some cases, been accompanied by increased exposure to victimization rooted in or driven by prejudicial beliefs and actions against people who identify as gay or lesbian, commonly referred to as homophobia (Kosciw et al., 2020). Homophobia can show up in schools in several ways, including through interpersonal discrimination and through structural barriers that can negatively affect sexual minority youth (Horn, 2019; Spengler et al., 2023). Students who identify as LGBQ+ have reported hearing derogatory language about their sexual identity from teachers and students, peer bullying motivated by sexual identity, and feeling that they are not connected to the school community because of their sexual identity (Hatchel et al., 2018; Heinze & Horn, 2014). Schools have a critical responsibility to create and maintain environments where all students feel safe, supported, and can thrive. In the absence of inclusive school climates, interpersonal expressions of homophobia are more likely to emerge and persist.

Recognizing the importance of these concerns, the YRBS added new questions in 2015 to gain a better understanding of rates of school-based violence and victimization experienced by LGBQ+ youth, which included questions about student sexual identity. In the following years, results have demonstrated that sexual minority youth experience higher rates of bullying, more sexual dating violence, and more suicide attempts as compared with their heterosexual peers (Di Giacomo et al., 2018; Johns et al., 2020; Kahle, 2020; Martin-Storey, 2015). Furthermore, some of these rates of violence appear to be rising over time. For example, in 2019, 15.9% of LGBQ+ students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon at school, compared to 11.6% in 2015 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019; Johns et al., 2020). The pervasiveness of violence against sexual minority youth warrants immediate attention.

Additional research has consistently documented these trends in the experiences of school-based violence. One study examined rates of school violence among LGBQ+ high school students, demonstrating that sexual minority youth were at greater risk for school-based violence compared to their heterosexual peers (Olsen et al., 2014). Additionally, Johns and colleagues 2020) found that sexual minority youth experience higher rates of bullying when compared to their heterosexual peers. One qualitative study revealed that LGBQ+ youth reported feeling a lack of community within the school environment and often avoided stressors, including school-based violence, by distancing themselves from school (Grossman et al., 2009). Further, Lowry et al. (2022) found that gay and lesbian youth have the highest rates of absenteeism in school primarily due to safety concerns. These findings underscore the heightened vulnerability of sexual minority youth within the school environment and an urgent need to implement inclusive, evidence-based policies that foster safer, more supportive, and equitable educational spaces for all students.

Schools can buffer against this and create supportive environments by offering Gender and Sexuality Alliances, supportive educators, and inclusive curricula (Pearson et al., 2026; Stilwell et al., 2025b). Although protective factors such as peer support buffer against LGBQ+ youth risk for perpetrating victimization, adherence to hegemonic norms around sexual identity may increase the likelihood of perpetuating victimization (Valido et al., 2021). As more students identify as part of this marginalized group, developing awareness about lived experiences in schools and establishing evidence-based policies and strategies to ensure their safety and well-being is critical.

Racial identity

Racial and ethnic minority students also face disproportionately high rates of school-based victimization, rooted in both interpersonal racism and structural inequities (Helms et al., 2012; Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). Interpersonal racism is a significant source of psychological stress (Harrell, 2000; Steele et al., 2002; Willis et al., 2021), which can increase the risk for poor health outcomes and violent behaviors (Caldwell et al., 2004; Neblett, 2019; Stewart & Simons, 2010). The continued legacy of structural racism (i.e., racially discriminatory policies and practices across multiple, interconnected social institutions; Bailey et al., 2017; Braveman et al., 2022; Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012) results in BIPOC youth being more likely than White youth to encounter community-level risk factors associated with violence exposure and perpetration (Stewart & Simons, 2010; Zimmerman & Messner, 2010). School-based violence and victimization provides a critical opportunity for understanding the unique lived experiences of BIPOC youth, particularly in examining the compounded effects of interpersonal discrimination and structural barriers.

Interpersonal and structural racism can cultivate interracial mistrust, fear, and hostility, which may contribute to violent behavior among youth (Beelmann & Heinemann, 2014; Forman & Lewis, 2015; Wendel et al., 2021). However, responsibility for addressing these issues does not lie with students affected by them. Rather, these patterns reflect broader systematic failures within educational institutions and society at large. The root causes of school-based violence and victimization are multifaceted and deeply embedded in historical and ongoing inequities related to race, socioeconomic status, and access to opportunity (Scott et al., 2025; Zimmerman & Astor, 2021).

In recent years, greater attention has been directed toward racism and systematic oppression affecting marginalized communities. Educational institutions are central settings where inequities are both reflected and reinforced, influencing students’ access to resources, support, and safety (Zimmerman & Astor, 2021). Sociocultural movements, such as Black Lives Matter, have illuminated the lived experiences of marginalized youth, highlighting how systemic racism contributes to unequal school resources and to school climates that can be unsafe or exclusionary (Heidelburg et al., 2022). These conditions undermine students’ sense of belonging, school connectedness, and mental health, with particularly strong effects among those with multiple marginalized identities. Accordingly, school-based violence prevention strategies must center the resilience of BIPOC students, affirm their identities, and explicitly address racism within its structural and historical contexts. Such approaches recognize how entrenched ideologies perpetuate unsafe and inequitable school environments (Adeyeba et al., 2025; Scott et al., 2025; Zimmerman & Astor, 2021). Schools play a critical role in fostering inclusion, affirming students’ diverse identities, and addressing the systemic barriers that create unsafe environments.

Racial disparities in both school-based victimization and perpetration are well documented, disproportionately affecting non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native youth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019; Galán et al., 2021; Li et al., 2020; Peguero, 2012; Peguero & Williams, 2013). Scholars attribute these disparities to the combined effects of interpersonal and structural racism (Bailey et al., 2017; Viruell-Fuentes et al., 2012). It is well documented that students who identify as racial minorities experience higher rates of school-based violence compared to their White peers (Espelage et al., 2022; Sanders-Phillips, 2009). Specifically, Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native youth are also more likely to report physical assaults, school fights, and weapon carriage compared to non-Hispanic White youth (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019, 2023). One recent study demonstrates that minority youth are disproportionately affected by factors associated with bullying, such as adverse social-ecological environments (Xu et al., 2020). These findings highlight the need to strengthen school environments that mitigate the harmful effects of victimization. Promotive factors such as school connectedness, perceived trust, and collective efficacy can buffer racial minority youth from these negative experiences (Hsieh et al., 2023).

Taken together, these effects of victimization may contribute to the increased risk of youth violence and diminished health outcomes and further factor into this ongoing public health crisis. However, additional research is needed to clarify how intersecting minoritized identities shape students’ experiences of school-based violence and victimization, more specifically. These disproportionate rates of violence do not reflect inherent traits of students, but rather the inequitable environments in which they learn. Addressing such disparities necessitates systemic transformation within educational and societal structures, rather than placing the burden of adaptation on individual students (Scott et al., 2025).

Theoretical framework

Drawing upon previous research, which has explored how intersecting identities contribute to the rates at which individuals with multiple identities experience oppression, the current study utilizes intersectionality framework through the lens of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) (Armstead et al., 2021; Cole, 2009; López & Gadsden, 2017). Intersectionality framework represents an approach to understanding how individuals with multiple identities function in contextualized systems of inequality (Cole, 2009; Grzanka et al., 2020). As public health researchers seek to unpack how ecological factors affect lived experiences based on social identity, the unique social determinants of racial and sexual identity on health must be considered interrelated without being reduced to isolated understandings of racial or sexual identity (Armstead et al., 2021). To this end, an intersectional approach to SDOH nuances how social issues, causes, inequities, and inequalities may be interrelated in school-based victimization (Bowleg, 2012; Cole, 2009; López & Gadsden, 2017).

Examining school-based victimization is especially important given the high levels of social identity discrimination among youth with multiple marginalized identities (Johns et al., 2020; Toomey & Russell, 2016). Tajfe and colleagues’ (1979) seminal theory on social identity posits that the construction of in-groups and out-groups (i.e., us vs. them) during early developmental periods plays a vital role in developing a social identity. Race and sexual identity are often the basis of group identity formation (Brewer, 1993; Cerezo et al., 2020; Kahn & Davies, 2011). Youth who belong to minoritized racial and sexual identities are more likely to belong to outgroups (Peguero & Jiang, 2016). Tajfel et al., (1979) argues that the development of in- and out-groups can also shape discriminatory attitudes, especially toward members of out-groups. Consistent with this line of thinking, youth who belong to out-groups based on the color of their skin as well as their sexual orientation are susceptible to increased dislike (Horn, 2019; Nesdale et al., 2005), bullying (Horn, 2019; Nesdale et al. 2005), and aggression (Horn, 2019; Weisel & Böhm, 2015) from ‘in-group’ members (i.e., White and heterosexual youth).

As schools become more diverse, it is vital to understand how students navigate these complexities and develop an understanding of the role of intersectionality and SDOH in school-based victimization. Researchers have shown that violence can differ significantly when considering multiple intersecting identities, including race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socio-economic status (Atteberry-Ash et al., 2019; Lawrence et al., 2023; Peguero & Popp, 2012). For example, trends over time indicate that students who identify as BIPOC and LGBQ+ maybe be up to twice as likely to experience school-based victimization as compared to their white and heterosexual peers, with the most elevated rates for those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or pansexual (Gower et al., 2023; Peguero et al., 2015; Peguero & Williams, 2013). Similarly, researchers demonstrate that LGBQ+ students are at elevated risk of partner violence, and among those who report, they are more likely to be struggling with school-based bullying, depression, and suicidality (Walls et al., 2019). Bullying victimization and skipping school due to safety concerns are common experiences among students, particularly among LGBQ+ youth (Atteberry-Ash et al. 2019; Gower et al., 2018; Olsen et al., 2014; van Vliet et al., 2025). As these trends emerge, it becomes increasingly important to explore the role of systemic inequities and SDOH in shaping these experiences. Understanding how broader structural factors, such as educational policies and school norms, interact with individual student identities will be essential for addressing the long-term effects of violence on marginalized youth.

Current study

Using data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), the current study examines how rates of school-based victimization change over time for students based on their intersecting racial and sexual identities. This research contributes to an important gap in the literature to establish the prevalence of school-based victimization among students who hold specific multiple marginalized identities. An intersectional examination of trends in student school-based victimization is a crucial first step toward establishing strategies for creating school climates that are safe and equitable for all students.

Methods

Data source

This study utilized CDC data from 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS). The YRBS is a school-based survey conducted on a biannual basis since 1991. The cross-sectional survey is designed to elicit representative responses from high school students (grades 9–12) across the United States on various issues, including school-based victimization. Students who responded to the questions about racial and sexual identity were included in our sample (N_Wave1 = 1,145; N_Wave2 = 1,420; N_Wave3 = 1,395; N_Wave4 = 3,243; N_Wave5 = 3,594). Additional information about YRBS sampling, complete questionnaire, response rates, and data collection is available at https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm.

Measures

School-based victimization

A composite variable was created to capture whether students reported any school-based victimization experiences. This variable was based on the following YRBS questions: 1) school avoidance: not attending school due to feeling unsafe to, from, or at school; 2) bullying victimization: being bullied on school property; 3) weapon threat victimization: being threatened or injured on school property with a weapon (Table 1). Each of these original measures had differing frequency and time scales to operationalize the variable. To create a consistent way to capture the time and frequency of the school-based victimization occurrences from the survey, items were converted to a dichotomous variable with 1 indicating having experienced, and 0 indicating not having experienced each type of school-based victimization. Two of the three questions were available during all 5 survey waves, while the question regarding avoiding school due to feeling unsafe was only available after 2015. We compared overall trends in school-based victimization between 2015 and 2017 and found no meaningful differences. Additional analyses comparing trends from 2015–2023 and 2017–2023 showed that excluding 2015 did not affect significant findings by aggregate or intersectional identities. Therefore, we included all five waves to maximize the sample size and capture the full trend period.

Sexual identity

The YRBS sexual identity question has a variation between waves (Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual, Questioning, or Heterosexual in 2015–2019, and Heterosexual (straight), Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual, I describe my sexual identity in some other way, I am not sure about my sexual identity (questioning), and I do not know what this question is asking in 2021–2023). To create commonality between waves and adequate power within analyses, sexual minority youth (Gay or Lesbian, Bisexual, I describe my sexual identity in some other way, I am not sure about my sexual identity [questioning]) were grouped and re-coded as sexual minority (LGBQ+).

Racial identity

We used items from the YRBS survey that categorized racial identity as: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African-American, Multiracial (Non-Hispanic), Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or White. We combined American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander into an Indigenous/Native American category due to low incidence. Thus, we created the following subsets of racial identities among sexual minorities: Asian, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American, Hispanic/Latino, Multiracial, or White.

Analytic strategy

To examine the intersection of sexual and racial minority identities on school-based violence victimization, we conducted a trend analysis (see Cohen et al., 2013) using prevalence estimates (i.e., proportions of individuals with school-based victimization within their racial minority LGBQ+ cohort) and logistic regressions (i.e., statistical test to determine overall difference across the time period). We calculated trends for each racial minority LGBQ+ youth group and for all LGBQ+ youth, looking at school-based victimization and three risk behaviors. Models were isolated to LGBQ+ students, subset by racial identity, and adjusted by grade. We used the R survey package version 4.4–2 to account for weighting and the complex survey design (Lumley, 2024). The survey requires listwise deletion, and no sample model decreased by more than 5% during analysis. Models with a significant linear trend were examined for quadratic trends and breakpoints, as is recommended among complex survey designs (Bieler et al., 2010). We suppressed prevalence estimates where the denominator was n < 30, following historical trend YRBS analyses (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2023).

Conceptual positionality

Quantitative analyses require the selection of a reference point to estimate differences across groups (McLoyd, 2004; Randall et al., 2022). Historically, studies have often used White, heterosexual, and/or male populations as default reference categories, which not only symbolically solidifies the social privilege of these groups within quantitative analysis, but it also assumes that groups by identity experience the world in similar ways (Garcia et al., 2018; McGuinness & Wellborn, 2025; Strunk, 2024). Because we do not hold these assumptions, we explicitly and implicitly avoid statistical examinations to straight students, and in this study, we take a different approach that aligns with our research and broader goals.

Rather than comparing LGBQ+ youth to heterosexual peers, we center our analyses exclusively on LGBQ+ students and examine variation within this population across racial identity groups and over time. Specifically, our models assess changes in school-based victimization within intersectional groups (e.g., Black LGBQ+ students) across survey years, rather than differences between LGBQ+ and non-LGBQ+ youth at a single time point. This approach reflects the primary objective of the study: to evaluate temporal trends in school-based victimization among LGBQ+ youth across racial identities. By structuring the analysis in this way, we focus on within-group changes over time, which allows for a more precise understanding of how experiences of victimization may be shifting across survey waves.

Our goal is not to reestablish well-documented disparities, but to assess whether and how patterns of school-based victimization among racially diverse LGBQ+ youth have changed between 2015 and 2023. By situating the unique lived experiences of youth with intersecting identities as part of a larger global context, we hope to contribute to this gap in the literature and generate important conversation. This framing ensures that the analytic strategy remains closely aligned with the study’s research questions and use of YRBS data to examine trends over time.

Results

When examining the descriptives for all waves of data, the number of students who identify as LGBQ+ in 2023 was approximately 25%. The overall sample included a majority of students who identified as biologically female (73%), and was equally distributed across grades 9–12. The racial breakdown of the LGBQ+ sample included 4.3% Asian, 14% Black/African American, 0.08% Indigenous/Native American, 24.2% Hispanic/Latino, 6.9% Multiracial, and 49.6% White (see Table 2) for full demographics of the sample).

Table 2.

Total sample demographics.

LGBQ+ Student Demographic Characteristic		Total	Asian	Black / African American	Indigenous / Native American	Hispanic / Latino	Multiracial	White
N%		13,882–	609 4.3%	1,955 14%	113 0.8%	3,356 24.2%	956 6.9%	6,893 49.6%
Sex	Female	10,031 (73%)	401 (66%)	1,505 (78%)	76 (68%)	2,499 (76%)	728 (78%)	4,821 (71%)
	Male	3,617 (27%)	203 (34%)	431 (22%)	36 (32%)	805 (24%)	209 (22%)	1,934 (29%)
Grade	9	3,623 (26%)	173 (29%)	514 (26%)	40 (35%)	928 (28%)	262 (27%)	1,706 (25%)
	10	2,691 (27%)	139 (23%)	543 (28%)	30 (27%)	852 (26%)	253 (27%)	1,873 (27%)
	11	3,347 (24%)	160 (26%)	482 (25%)	20 (18%)	854 (26%)	205 (21%)	1,625 (24%)
	12	3,128 (23%)	133 (22%)	411 (21%)	22 (19%)	685 (21%)	234 (25%)	1,643 (24%)

Overall school-based victimization prevalence

The overall prevalence of school-based victimization increased among LGBQ+ students (Table 3). Specifically, the proportions of students reporting school avoidance and those reporting weapon threat victimization increased (Table 4). In contrast, reports of bullying victimization at school decreased. These findings suggest that while certain forms of victimization, such as bullying, have declined, other, more severe safety-related experiences have become more common, resulting in an overall increase in school-based victimization when these experiences are considered collectively. Considering these overall trends, we next examine patterns across intersectional identities.

Table 3.

Percentage of students Reporting composite school-based victimization.

	School-based victimization among LGBQ+ students
	2015		2017		2019		2021		2023
	n SBV		n SBV		n SBV		n SBV		n SBV
Identity	n total	%	n total	%	n total	%	n total	%	n total	%
Asian LGBQ+	9	17.8%	10	14.7%	25	21.6%	36	17.2%	39	23.1%
	50		67		116		208		168
Black / African American LGBQ+	73	28.0%	89	26.2%	75	30.2%	148	32.1%	237	36.7%
	261		342		247		459		645
Indigenous / Native American LGBQ+	---	---	---	---	---	---	16	44.4%	---	---
	19		17		19		36		22
Hispanic / Latino LGBQ+	136	36.5%	146	34.4%	186	36.3%	303	33.1%	488	43.1%
	374		425		511		917		1128
Multiracial LGBQ+*	47	43.1%	55	45.0%	50	46.4%	89	28.7%	130	42.5%
	109		123		108		311		305
White LGBQ+*	315	40.1%	405	40.2%	397	41.9%	671	34.7%	971	43.8%
	786		1007		948		1933		2219
Total LGBQ+*	589	36.8%	711	35.9%	741	38.0%	1262	32.7%	1870	41.7%
	1600		1980		1950		3864		4487

Table 4.

Percentage of students reporting individual school-based victimization items.

	School avoidance				Bullying victimization					Weapon threat victimization
	2017	2019	2021	2023	2015	2017	2019	2021	2023	2015	2017	2019	2021	2023
Asian LGBQ+	5.4	2.6	6.8	12.5+	14.9	11.2	19.1	14.0	16.0	7.0	4.3	8.4	3.6	8.2
Black / African American LGBQ+	6.5	7.2	18.0	20.5*	19.4	17.8	17.2	15.8	19.2	15.6	13.1	16.0	11.5	11.9
Hispanic / Latino LGBQ+	5.3	7.4	17.2	23.9*	28.9	26.9	26.0	19.8	24.3	16.0	13.0	15.7	8.6	16.2*
Multiracial LGBQ+	2.2	2.9	10.2	20.4*	33.3	41.8	33.2	24.4	19.8*	13.9	8.9	22.5	11.2	15.8
White LGBQ+	3.9	3.5	11.7	15.8*	37.9	36.2	36.6	27.9	35.2*	8.9	8.6	11.4	6.9	12.7*
Total LGBQ+	4.6	5.1	13.4	18.7*	31.7	30.4	30.2	23.5	28.9*	12.0	10.1	13.7	8.0	13.5*

Note.

^*p < 0.05.

⁺p < 0.10;

items are not mutually exclusive.

Intersectional trends in composite school-based victimization

The prevalence of school-based victimization increased for Multiracial and decreased for White LGBQ+ students (Figure 1). No clear trends were observed among Asian, Black/African American, or Hispanic/Latino LGBQ+ students. To explore these patterns further, we examined trends and prevalence ratios for school avoidance, bullying victimization, and weapon threat victimization.

Figure 1.

Intersectional trends of students Reporting school-based victimization.

Intersectional trends in school avoidance

The prevalence of school avoidance due to safety concerns increased overall among LGBQ+ students (Table 4). Significant increases were observed for Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Multiracial, and White LGBQ+ students, with a smaller increase for Asian LGBQ+ students (Figure 2). In 2023, Hispanic/Latino LGBQ+ students had the highest prevalence for school avoidance, while in 2017, Black/African American LGBQ+ students had the highest prevalence estimates, highlighting the complexity of these patterns across identities. Overall, this variable had high prevalence for all student groups and demonstrated the most significant increase over time.

Figure 2.

Intersectional trends of students Reporting school avoidance.

Intersectional trends in bullying victimization

The prevalence of school-based bullying victimization generally showed a slight decrease overall among LGBQ+ students (Table 4). By identity group, this trend significantly decreased for Multiracial and White LGBQ+ students. No significant trends were observed among Asian LGBQ+, Black/African American LGBQ+, or Asian LGBQ+ students (Figure 3). In 2015 and 2023, White LGBQ+ students had the highest prevalence of school-based bullying victimization. The overall prevalence of school-based bullying victimization for the total LGBQ+ student sample consistently decreased across all waves, representing a significant decrease overtime.

Figure 3.

Intersectional trends of students Reporting bullying victimization.

Intersectional trends in weapon threat victimization

The prevalence of weapon threat victimization increased overall among LGBQ+ students (Table 4). By identity group, this trend significantly increased for White and Hispanic/Latino LGBQ+ students (Figure 4). No significant trends were observed among Asian, Black/African American, or Multiracial LGBQ+ students. Notably, Hispanic/Latino LGBQ+ students had the highest prevalence in 2015 and 2023, and almost all groups showed a spike in rates of weapon threat victimization during the 2019 reporting period.

Figure 4.

Intersectional trends of students Reporting weapon threat victimization.

In sum, there was a significant trend increase in overall school-based victimization for LGBQ+ students over time. When disaggregated by intersecting identities, this increase was driven by Multiracial and White LGBQ+ youth. When disaggregated by individual school-based victimization survey items, there was a significant increase in school avoidance for all intersecting minority identity groups. There was a significant increase in weapon threat victimization among White and Hispanic/Latino LGBQ+ youth. There was a decrease in the prevalence of bullying victimization for White and Multiracial LGBQ+ youth. These nuanced patterns, particularly trends across intersecting racial and sexual identities, highlight the importance of intersectional approaches to examinations of school-based victimization.

Discussion

The findings of the present study underscore how complex and persistent school-based victimization is among racial and sexual minority youth. While the school-based victimization trends published by the CDC demonstrate a decrease for students overall (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024), our findings suggest that school-based victimization increased among LGBQ+ youth over time. This discrepancy suggests that students who belong to sexual and racial minority groups may have a disproportionate risk for school-based victimization compared to their peers. These trends may indicate broader structural issues that exist within schools that contribute to a lack of feeling safe, particularly for racial minority LGBQ+ student groups, and underscore an urgent need to create safe school environments for all students. By taking a more nuanced approach and examining both racial and sexual minority identities, we gain a clearer picture of school-based victimization for each intersecting identity. Specifically, findings from our study suggest that taking an intersectional approach matters. While there is increasing research on the role of race and sexual minority status on youths’ experiences with violence at school, there is a dearth of research examining the interaction between multiple identities on school-based victimization. Given the cultural context and increase in students self-identifying as LGBQ+, it is increasingly important to examine trends of school-based victimization among racial minority LGBQ+ youth to understand the etiology of the problem and prevent school-based violence for those most at risk of being affected. The picture of school-based violence experiences becomes more complex when examining specific types of school-based victimization behavior, revealing unequal experiences of school safety.

School avoidance

Overall, rates of school avoidance due to safety concerns are rising for all minority groups included in this study. While general trends demonstrate that students, overall, are showing increasing rates of truancy (see Sobba, 2019), our study demonstrates that this rate is further reflected within racial minority LGBQ+ students. This trend reflects students’ concerns about their safety not only within the school environment, but also during their commute to and from school, representing an issue extending to the broader community surrounding the school. Among racial minority LGBQ+ students, heightened fear of violence appears to be a significant contributor to increased absenteeism, resulting in missed academic and positive peer interaction opportunities. Although fear of victimization is likely a driver of school avoidance, other factors, such as concerns about the presence of weapons on campus, fear of COVID-19, or lack of school connectedness, may also play a role in student truancy. The negative outcomes associated with school avoidance (i.e., negative mental health outcomes, school dropout) increase the concerns of students within this population. Furthermore, because bullying victimization is a leading cause of school avoidance, it is possible that racial minority LGBQ+ students are more likely to experience increased levels of bullying victimization, and as a consequence, elect not to attend school. Additional research is necessary to uncover this relationship and to determine the extent to which these behaviors are linked, particularly for racial minority LBTQ+ youth. Furthermore, extending the work of Hsieh et al. (2023), schools should develop improved school- and community-based supports to foster a sense of safety, acceptance, and belonging, to foster promotive factors, ultimately reducing the likelihood that sexual and racial minority students will miss school.

Bullying victimization

Our findings align with overall trends, demonstrating that rates of bullying victimization are generally stable over time, if not slightly decreasing (i.e., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023). When examining all LGBQ+ groups combined, there was a statistically significant decrease in reported rates of bullying victimization from 2015 to 2023. While this may appear to be a promising finding, emerging research demonstrates that students, especially those belonging to minority groups, may be experiencing differing forms of school-based violence (i.e., school avoidance and/or weapon threat victimization).

A critical question emerges regarding how school based violence victimization, including bullying, is defined and operationalized by the students who experience it (define). The construct and variable, as measured through the YRBS, may represent an oversimplification of a more nuanced and complex construct of bullying. The YRBS survey question asks students to reflect on whether they have experienced bullying on school property, however, emerging research demonstrates that incidents of cyberbullying, in particular, are common among school-aged youth, and do not necessarily occur on school property (Selkie et al., 2016). Future research should carefully consider the nuanced ways in which students might experience various forms of bullying, including cyberbullying and other more covert forms it may take (i.e., relational or verbal bullying) to understand how these manifestations might affect students, particularly those belonging to sexual and racial minority groups. Further investigation is needed to understand how these trends evolve over time, and to disaggregate if, or how, rates of violence victimization may be linked.

Weapon threat victimization

With firearms now the leading cause of death of U.S. children and teens, our findings are consistent with this growing trend, demonstrating that school-based weapon threat victimization is also growing. In the most recent wave of YRBS data from 2023, this trend increased for all groups included in this study, demonstrating that racial minority LGBQ+ students may be taking extreme coping or protective behaviors in response to perceived threats to their safety.

As an increasing number of students report they feel unsafe at school or on their way to or from school, firearm carriage may be increasingly perceived as a means of self-protection in the context of diminished psychological safety. This interpretation builds on prior scholarship (e.g., Stilwell et al., 2025a; Wilcox et al., 2006) that conceptualizes youth weapon carrying not solely as deviant behavior, but as a rational, albeit high-risk, response to chronic exposure to violence, victimization, and institutional failure to ensure safety.

Interestingly, racial differences emerge within these observed trends, consistent with previous research (i.e., Beltran-Silva & Teotia, 2026), demonstrating the nuance of this behavior among racial minority LGBQ+ youth. This, perhaps, reflects broader structural inequities, sociopolitical dynamics, and culturally specific norms that are reproduced within school contexts as micro-level expressions of larger systems of power and marginalization (Zimmerman & Astor, 2021). Schools, as social institutions, often mirror racialized and heteronormative societal hierarchies, which may differentially shape students’ perceptions of safety, vulnerability, and acceptable coping strategies.

These patterns may also be shaped by distinct sociopolitical pressures faced by racial minority youth, including concerns about, but not limited to, immigration, disciplinary practices, cultural norms, and broader political systems that can profoundly shape identity and development. For racial minority LGBQ+ youth, these dynamics may be further compounded by intersecting forms of stigma and oppression related to race, sexual orientation, gender identity, and their evolving perceptions of psychological and physical safety.

Further research is also needed to more fully examine the intersection of students who experience victimization and carry weapons, as previous research has demonstrated that victims of bullying are more likely to carry weapons (Oliphant, 2023). Having a better understanding of how school-based victimization behaviors may co-occur and interact over time can inform the development of comprehensive interventions, including pre and post-vention strategies, for students who may experience multiple kinds of victimization. Overall, these trends may indicate broader structural issues that exist within schools that contribute to a lack of feeling safe, particularly for racial minority LGBQ+ student groups, and underscore an urgent need to create safe school policies and environments for all students. Schools should develop policies alongside students that proactively incorporate youth voice, particularly students from historically marginalized student groups, to ensure policies adequately reflect goals, identities, and definitions of physical and psychological safety.

While there is increasing research on the role of race and sexual minority status on youths’ experiences with violence at school, there is a dearth of research examining the interaction between multiple identities on school-based victimization. Given the cultural context and increase in students self-identifying as LGBQ+, it is increasingly important to examine trends of school-based victimization among racial minority LGBQ+ youth to understand the etiology of the problem and prevent school-based violence for those most at risk of being affected. The present study highlights the importance of examining sexual minority status in tandem with racial identity for a more complete picture of school-based violence trends. As our society becomes increasingly diverse (more students identify as LGBQ+ and/or youth of color, this demands the development of targeted, intersectionally informed school safety efforts. This shift reflects broader societal trends in the recognition and acceptance of LGBQ+, as well as potential changes in the visibility and conceptualization of these identities in school and research contexts. Future efforts should focus on reducing school-based victimization, increasing support for racial minority LGBQ+ students, and ensuring students can learn in safe, positive environments that are free from violence. This paper is a first step toward developing educational systems that confront inequities in school safety and empower school communities to challenge antiquated structures of power.

Future directions

This study highlights the need to consider how intersecting marginalized student identities relate to student experiences with school-based violence. However, additional contextual considerations should be taken into account, as well as opportunities for future data collection and analysis. The context of a school might have implications for the way students experience school belonging and, in turn, may influence experiences of school-based violence. Understanding the relationship between school context and school-based violence is a critical way to foster school climate, support students, and develop strategies to reduce violence. Future research is needed to understand how particular aspects of a school’s context may affect this relationship. For example, it is critical to understand how various contextual factors, including school demographics, geographical location, teacher identity and support, and peer connectedness, influence student experiences, including school-based violence (Stilwell et al., 2024).

The current study and its data sources did not provide the opportunity to examine contextual factors in sufficient detail to fully understand the complex relationship between school context and school-based violence. Thus, future research might consider investigating how more nuanced aspects of a school’s context can influence student experiences of school-based victimization. This could be accomplished through multiple case studies in various school contexts to understand how factors, including family backgrounds within the school, the philosophy of the school, political climate, and school climate, might affect student experiences of school-based victimization, particularly among youth with multiple marginalized identities. Understanding the interplay between these factors is a critical first step in developing strategies to better support the unique needs of all students within a school and reduce school violence occurrences.

An additional important consideration is understanding protective factors that might buffer against violent occurrences, particularly for students with multiple marginalized identities. Research demonstrates that having peer support or the support of a trusted adult can act as a buffer against violent behaviors, especially for LGBQ+ youth (Park et al., 2023). To learn more about this relationship, future research is needed to understand how having a trusted adult within a school context, such as a teacher, can act as a buffer against school violence for youth with multiple marginalized identities (e.g., Adeyeba et al., 2025). Understanding how this relationship can either mediate or moderate acts of school violence is an important first step toward developing and implementing evidence-based interventions that involve trusted adults in schools and how these relationships can reduce school-based violence.

Finally, given how rates of school-based violence are changing over time, additional longitudinal research is needed to understand how the relationship between student identity and violence in schools is changing over time. Further research examining how this relationship evolves across time can help identify factors that make specific populations more vulnerable to school-based violence and, in turn, develop prevention strategies to reduce violence in schools.

Limitations

One limitation of the current study is the relatively lower overall response rate for 2021 compared with previous years of the YRBS data collection. The response rate for the YRBS during the 2021 data collection wave was below 60%, which may be a consequence of data collection impediments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along these lines, an additional limitation within our analysis concerns the differences in sample population sizes. The goals of the YRBS are to produce a nationally representative sample, and many strategies are employed to ensure presence among schools in geographic locations and relative population density (i.e., suburban, rural, urban). While the overall participant numbers are consistent with U.S. population estimates by race, the small cell sizes for multiply marginalized youth create lower confidence in the analysis. Additionally, for the present study, we grouped all LGBQ+ identities to create a composite score due to the limited variability between minority sub-groups. As a result, a limitation of this study is that we cannot detect prevalence differences in school-based victimization between gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning sexual minority students.

Our conceptualization of school-based violence includes multiple victimization experiences. In recent years, cyberbullying has emerged as another paramount aspect of youth violence that has implications for adolescents’ adjustment at school (see Zhu et al., 2021, for a systematic review of youth cyberbullying). Although the YRBS survey included items on cyberbullying in the years we examined, the questions were not specific to cyberbullying from peers at school or school-related cyberbullying. Because the items lacked context, it was not clear if students were responding to cyberbullying from peers at school or anonymous sources, and we could not parse out the difference between the current items. We recommend additional contextualization of the cyberbullying items on the YRBS survey (i.e., being specific about cyberbullying related to an issue at school and cyberbullying directed to/from peers at school). Future research should consider how cyberbullying relates to students’ experiences at school and whether and how it differs for students from different marginalized identities.

Conclusion

Concerning results on trends in school-based victimization among racial minority LGBQ+ students underscore the need for intersectional approaches to school safety and research. While we maintain that all students deserve safe schools and quality learning spaces, this research highlights the importance of addressing school-based victimization to safeguard the mental, emotional, and physical health of racial minority LGBQ+ students. To create equitable and inclusive learning environments that foster educational growth and positive development, we must be able to meaningfully understand the current differences in students’ experiences with school-based violence. Moreover, having explicitly established this disparity, researchers have a responsibility to communicate the implications of disparate school-based violence experiences with vested parties in ways that consider students’ intersectional identities as an asset, not the cause, of their experiences with school-based violence.

Biographies

Sarah M. Stilwell, Ph.D., is a Research Investigator at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and with the National Center for School Safety at the University of Michigan. Dr. Stilwell’s research focuses on comprehensive school safety, program evaluation, youth violence prevention, and positive youth development. She has experience in community-based research, program management and implementation, and mixed-methods data collection and analysis. As a former elementary educator, she brings a unique perspective that seeks to bridge both research and practice, particularly for school-based community members that represent historically marginalized backgrounds. Sarah earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan, and holds a faculty appointment with the University of Michigan School of Public Health in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Equity.

Briana A. Scott, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention and with the National Center for School Safety at the University of Michigan. Dr. Scott’s research is on comprehensive school safety, youth violence, and firearm injury prevention with a focus on equity and social justice in K-12 education. Dr. Scott’s research is in collaboration with the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation and the National Center for School Safety. Dr. Scott earned her PhD in Education and Psychology and her Master of Science in Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Kate M. Morman, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Northwestern University in the Psychology Department. Dr. Morman’s research focuses on equity-focused school structures that sustain educators’ culturally inclusive thinking and practices for the benefit of students who experience social marginalization. Dr. Morman earned her PhD in Education and Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Data availability statement

This study utilizes data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Study (YRBS). Additional information about YRBS sampling, full questionnaire, response rates, and data collection is available at https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/data.htm.