Victimization among college campuses always prevails, whether it be hidden or right in front of you. College students are constantly being exploited for several reasons such as race, gender, heritage, religion etc. Being victimized can royally ruin one’s self esteem and feelings of self-worth, which can serve several consequences, as drastic as suicide. One bump in a person’s "wellness wheel" can hurt more than many students may realize.
A study was conducted by Heather Murphy who attends the University of Washington, which showed that being victimized because of sexual orientation is a chief risk factor for suicidal behavior among gay, lesbian and bisexual college students. A group of students that went unrecognized were those who identified themselves to be heterosexual but also admitted to being attracted to the same sex as well as engaged in same-sex behavior. These group of students surveyed were three times as likely as heterosexuals to have made a plan to commit suicide in the past year and six times more likely to have actually attempted suicide in the same period whereas gay, lesbian and bisexuals were only two times as likely as heterosexuals to have attempted suicide in the past year. She had also constructed a survey with 86 questions that were answered by 500 undergraduate UW students. 56 students claimed to have considered suicide in the past twelve months. 12 attempted suicide. This study was provoked by a suicidal youth who asked Murphy if "it got better in college". Afterward, she needed to know the answer.
For further information Murphy recruited 528 participants-404 heterosexuals, 79 same-sex attracted heterosexuals, 38 gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and 7 who said they were not sure of their sexual identity. The students ranged from 17 to 26, and 63 percent were female. The study showed that gay, lesbian and bisexuals and the sam-sex-attracted heterosexuals obviously experienced more verbal and physical victimization than heterosexuals did.
"‘There is a lot of hype that gay kids are more suicidal," she said. "My study shows that this is not so. In my study, being victimized for being gay was the risk factor that increased suicidal- behavior risk.'"
Mainly, heterosexuals that engaged in same-sex behavior were extremely afraid of coming-out and wanted to remain in the main stream of people which caused a lot of tension, confusion, and frustration in their lives which upped their risks of suicide.
Be careful of what you say and do to people. You don't want to be a contributing factor in a person's decision.
A study was conducted by Heather Murphy who attends the University of Washington, which showed that being victimized because of sexual orientation is a chief risk factor for suicidal behavior among gay, lesbian and bisexual college students. A group of students that went unrecognized were those who identified themselves to be heterosexual but also admitted to being attracted to the same sex as well as engaged in same-sex behavior. These group of students surveyed were three times as likely as heterosexuals to have made a plan to commit suicide in the past year and six times more likely to have actually attempted suicide in the same period whereas gay, lesbian and bisexuals were only two times as likely as heterosexuals to have attempted suicide in the past year. She had also constructed a survey with 86 questions that were answered by 500 undergraduate UW students. 56 students claimed to have considered suicide in the past twelve months. 12 attempted suicide. This study was provoked by a suicidal youth who asked Murphy if "it got better in college". Afterward, she needed to know the answer.
For further information Murphy recruited 528 participants-404 heterosexuals, 79 same-sex attracted heterosexuals, 38 gays, lesbians and bisexuals, and 7 who said they were not sure of their sexual identity. The students ranged from 17 to 26, and 63 percent were female. The study showed that gay, lesbian and bisexuals and the sam-sex-attracted heterosexuals obviously experienced more verbal and physical victimization than heterosexuals did.
"‘There is a lot of hype that gay kids are more suicidal," she said. "My study shows that this is not so. In my study, being victimized for being gay was the risk factor that increased suicidal- behavior risk.'"
Mainly, heterosexuals that engaged in same-sex behavior were extremely afraid of coming-out and wanted to remain in the main stream of people which caused a lot of tension, confusion, and frustration in their lives which upped their risks of suicide.
Be careful of what you say and do to people. You don't want to be a contributing factor in a person's decision.
3 comments:
Your article was interesting and I'm actually learning a lot about homosexuals and homophobia in my multicultural education class. I researched similar facts, that homosexuals are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide than heterosexuals. This is in large part because of internalized oppressions. Coming out for a lot of these people is very difficult, especially if family members, friends, or religion does not support it. On top of dealing with school pressure, homosexuals need to deal with the pressures of being different than the mainstream society. I agree with you in accepting everyone, and watching what we say, because you never know how someone else is feeling inside. You could be talking to a homosexual who has not come out yet, and make a "gay" joke which could really hurt that person. For the sake of everyone's well-being, we need to respect that everyone has different opinions about things and keep the negative comments to ourselves.
This was really interesting information and statistics. I am doing my commercial on Youth Suicide and this will help me with my research. Being victimized is a serious thing and I don't think that all people realize this. Being a dancer and experiencing all different types of people I can relate to the way they are sometimes victimized. Great blog and good info!
Nicely done blog, i have dealt with this first hand and its weird how a person can loose it from just a simple thing done to them. that thing can be anything, even somthing that most people deal with everyday. After dealing with it i have changed my behaviors and treat people differently, because like you said you dont want to be that contributing factor that pushes someone off the edge. It is very simple to set someone spiralling down the suicide path then most think. Good job.
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