Exploring Bullying And Gender Dysphoria Among Filipino Adolescent Gays and Lesbians

ABSTRACT

The study determined the relationship of bullying experiences, and the self-perceived gender dysphoria of Filipino teenage gays and lesbians.They express a strong cross-sex identification, and oftentimes insist on living in discrimination, being trapped in the wrong body, thus, they make a major decision to undergo hormonal treatment or sex surgery. Failure to do is causing them distress, depression, and low self-esteem. There is no study that supports mild experience of bullying that may not lead them to experience gender dysphoria.

Descriptive-correlational research design using quota snowball sampling technique was utilized to select the participants (N=150). The Multidimensional Peer- Victimization Scale has an internal consistency of 0.85 for physical victimization, 0.75 for verbal and 0.77 for social victimization; while the Gender Dysphoria Propensity Scale has a Cronbach Alpha of .98.

Majority of teenage gays and lesbians are less bullied though there is a minimal difference, verbal bullying remains the most common type of bullying, followed by social bullying, physical bullying and attack on property. Less bullied are those who have less meaning in their life but are not upset or less affected; they also experienced lesser times of assaults. Averagely bullied are those who experience discrimination and violence in school; they are either frequently bullied or easily upset, but not both. On the other hand, highly bullied are the ones who experience loneliness and often have the lowest self – esteem because of violence experience in the school. They are the ones who frequently accept unwanted actions. There is a significant direct correlation between bullying experience and their self- perceived gender dysphoria. Since majority of gays and lesbians are less bullied, the level of gender dysphoria is only mild. They are mildly disturbed with the incongruence of their mind-body connection.

Gender dysphoria manifests among children, adolescents and adults (DSM- 5, 2013). Gender dysphoria is usually accompanied by depressed mood, anxiety, and behaviour problems, all of which can considerably heighten the level of distress. When a gay or a lesbian experience a distressing bullying, the level of gender dysphoria is heightened, and they may opt to undergo cross hormonal treatment.

Keywords: social bullying, gender, incongruence, LGBT, penectomy, vaginoplasty, mastectomy or phalloplasty

INTRODUCTION

Bullying is the most common problem faced by Filipino LGBT community. Bullying also include social bullying which refers to any deliberate, repetitive and aggressive social behavior intended to hurt others or belittle any individual or group and gender-based bullying that humiliates a person on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity. Although bullying can affect all victims, those viewed as different from the majority are most likely to be targeted. Seventy-eight percent of gay (or believed to be gay) teens are teased or bullied in their schools and communities, a percentage significantly higher than for heterosexual youth (Gay Bullying Statistics, US, 2013).

Bullying is a spreading problem in all societies particularly in educational setting. Public high schools are more prone to bullying because of its large population. News about victims of bullying is skyrocketing. The data from the Department of Education showed that from 2010- 2012, there have been several reported cases of aggression related incidents including bullying. The Department of Education is alarmed with the increase of bullying and peer victimization in schools. Former President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act 10627 or the “Anti-Bullying Act of 2013” last September 6, 2013, requiring all elementary and secondary schools to adopt policies to prevent and address bullying in their institutions. The law defines bullying as any severe or repeated use by one or more students of a written, verbal, or a physical act or gesture, or any combination thereof, directed at another student that has the effect of actually causing or placing the latter in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm or damage to his property; creating a hostile environment. Furthermore, last October 8, 2011, the Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) approved the Statement on Non-Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression. Ofreneo (2013) states that this historic document signals the coming out of Philippine psychology as a profession to eliminate the stigma and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender or LGBT people.

Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES, 2015) stated that very rarely, children may express the incongruence between gender identity and the genital sex, but their discomfort is not always easy to identify. However, some children are able to express strong cross-sex identification, and sometimes insist on living in the opposite role. In particular, the increasing disgust with the development of secondary sex characteristics experienced by young people during puberty may be taken as a strong indication that the condition will persist into adulthood (Green, 2001). Furthermore, dysphoria is a mood of general dissatisfaction, restlessness, depression, and anxiety; a feeling of unpleasantness or discomfort towards anatomical sex or biological gender. The distress that a homosexual feel can lead to dissatisfaction also of the secondary sex characteristics such as having menstruation, enlargement of breast among trans men and development of Adam’s apple, beard, muscles, masculine voice among trans women. They tend to think that they were trapped in the wrong body and that they should make a necessary move to change it. Failure to do so can lead them to distress and depression making their self-esteem low.

Gender dysphoria is across life span; however, this study is focused on the victimization of gays, lesbians and bisexuals in three school because there are many reported cases of bullying. Furthermore, there are many types of bullying that can trigger gender dysphoria among homosexuals as wells as bisexuals and trans people.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5 (2013) define Gender Dysphoria as the distress that may accompany the incongruence between one’s experienced or expressed gender and one’s assigned gender. Gender dysphoria is formerly known as Gender Identity Disorder (GID). The current term is more descriptive than the previous DSM- IV term gender identity disorder and focuses on dysphoria as the clinical problem, not identity per se. Since dysphoria or “discomfort feeling” differs from “gender identity” towards the mind-body incongruence, several studies conducted used to measure the General Identity Disorder GID). Since the DSM 5 preferred to use “gender dysphoria” and no longer GID, as pertaining to emotional discomfort or distress not the “identity” per se, the validation of gender dysphoria instrument was necessary to pattern with the diagnostic criteria as there prescribed.

The main purpose of the study is to evaluate how significant is the correlation of the level of gender dysphoria among gays and lesbians as they experience varieties of bullying. It is hypothesized that there is no significant relationship between bullying and gender dysphoria.

METHODOLOGY

Descriptive-correlational design was utilized in this study to determine the relationship of bullying and gender dysphoria of gays and lesbians.The participants of the study were 150 homosexual high school students ages 12-18 who experienced bullying from three schools in Cavite, Philippines in code names: 1. S01 (50), 2. S02 (50) and 3. S03 (50).

Purposive quota, snowball sampling technique was used in this study. Students who were identified as gays and lesbians were selected. Participants were recruited equally (50) each three schools who gave their informed consent to participate in the study. Students were made to understand that their participation would be anonymous, confidential and would not influence their grades in any way.

Two instruments were administered: 1. Multidimensional Peer – Victimization Scale lifted from Marasigan & Velasco (2014); and 2. Gender Dysphoria Scale was developed by Manapsal (2015).

1. Multidimensional Peer – Victimization Scale (MPVS, Joseph, S. & Stockton, H. 2018). A 16 – item which has an internal consistency of 0.85 for physical victimization, 0.75 for verbal and 0.77 for social victimization. It determines the type of bullying that the students had experienced. There were three types of bullying included in this instrument; physical victimization (6, 7, 8, 9), verbal victimization (1, 4, 5, 16), social victimization (2, 11, 13, 14) and attacks on property scale (3, 10, 12, 15). This was scored with the point values that were assigned by the proponent; Not at all = 0, Once = 1 and More than Once =2. Scale scores will be added and higher scores in the specific type constitutes to reflect more victimization: 0.00 – 2.66 less bullied; 2.67 – 5.33 averagely bullied; 5.34 – 8.00 highly bullied. Less bullied are individuals are said to have less meaning in their life but were not upset or less affected; they also experienced lesser times of assaults. Averagely bullied are individuals experienced discrimination and violence in school; they were either frequently bullied or upset easily, but not both. Highly bullied are students who experienced loneliness and often had lowest self-esteem because of the violence in school. They were the ones who frequently accept unwanted actions.

2. Gender Dysphoria Scale (GDS). It is 45- item questionnaire for each separate set of questionnaires for Male to Female (MtF) and Female to Male (FtM). It is a five-point Likert scale administered to 310 samples: 155 gays and 164 lesbians with an inter-item reliability Cronbach alpha of .95. The questionnaire was developed by Manapsal (2015) to measure the level of discomfort feeling towards their natal gender. The Gender Dysphoria Scale underwent another content/expert validation, and it was administered to test-retest reliability to 16 students with a Cronbach Alpha of .98.

The instrument is scored with the point values assigned; Always = 5, Often = 4, Sometimes = 3, Seldom = 2 and Never = 1. Scale scores are added and get the mean score: 5.00 - 4.20 Severe; 4.19 – 3.40 High; 3.39 – 2.60 Moderate; 2.59 – 1.80 Mild; 1.79 – 1.00 No sign or poor evidential sign of Gender Dysphoria.

RESULTS

Table 1. Types of Bullying Experience of Gays and Lesbians

Abbildung in dieser Leseprobe nicht enthalten

Legend 0.00 – 0.66 Not At All(NAA)

0.67 – 1.33 Once(O)

1.34 – 2.00 More than Once(MTO)

0.00 – 2.66 Less Bullied (LB)0.00 – 10.66

2.67 – 5.33 Averagely Bullied(AB)10.67 –21.33

5.34 – 8.00 Highly Bullied(HB)21.34 –32.00

Table 1 shows that in N=150 samples, among the types of physical bullying, the verbal bullying had the greatest number of frequency with a mean of 2.64, SD=1.77; social bullying, 1.33, SD=1.63; attack on property 1.17 SD=1.51 and physical bullying 1.10 SD=1.54.

In physical bullying: less bullied, 126 or 84 %; averagely bullied, 21 or 14 %; and only 3 or 2 % are highly bullied. In verbal bullying: less bullied, 81 or 54%; averagely bullied 58 or 38.7 %; and 11 or 7.3 % are highly bullied. In social bullying: less bullied, 121 or 80%; averagely bullied, 24 or 16% and 5 or 3.3 % highly bullied. In terms of attach on property, less bullied, 122 or 81.3 %; averagely bullied, 25 or 16.7 %; highly bullied, 3 or 2 %.

Regardless of the types of bullying experience by homosexuals, less bullied are said to have less meaning in their life but were not upset or less affected; they also experienced lesser times of assaults. Averagely bullied are those who experience discrimination and violence in school; they were either frequently bullied or upset easily, but not both. On the other hand, highly bullied are the ones who experience loneliness and often had lowest self – esteem because of the violence in school. They were the ones who frequently accept unwanted actions.

[...]