Yasuharu Hidaka, MS

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Poster presented at 129th Annual Meeting of
American Public Health Association (APHA),


Atlanta, Oct/22/2001
Mental health and school-based verbal abuse
among Japanese gay and bisexual men
Yasuharu Hidaka, MS
Department of Global Health and
Socio-epidemiology Kyoto University
School of Public Health
Yasuharu HIDAKA
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Background
Almost no studies addresses school-based
harassment and verbal abuse among Japanese gay
and bisexual men (JGB). Japanese researchers and
practitioners have not been able to know the
incidents of harassment and verbal abuse at
schools, and develop mental health prevention
interventions to mitigate these problems.
Several U.S. studies indicated that gay,
bisexual, and other sexual minorities tend to
become the target for violence and verbal abuse
at schools, and have mental health problems at
higher rate compared to heterosexual
population. Internet use rate among JGB
According to previous JGB gay venue sex survey,
61 of participants were using the internet, and
a snow-ball sex survey indicated 80.6 of
participants were internet users.
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Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to understand 1) the
circumstances of harassment and verbal abuse at
schools, 2) current mental health, and 3) the
relationship between experiences of harassment
and verbal abuse and current mental health
among Japanese gay and bisexual men (JGB).
1. To contribute to bring this issue to
recognition 2. To contribute to plan the
effective prevention intervention programs
for this issue 3. To contribute to the change of
JGB social status
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Procedures of sampling method
Data collection July 24, 1999 through September
30, 1999
Settlement of the questionnaire on the World Wide
Web Establishment of firewall for protection from
hacker and/or clacker
Use of Japanese gay slang as markers to identify
participants
Programming cookie to prevent double count by the
same participant
Searching IP addresses for double count by the
same participant
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Questionnaire on the World Wide Web (WWW)
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Psychological inventory
Heterosexual role conflict (alpha .8881) SDS
Depression (alpha .8358) STAI Anxiety (alpha
.9132) Rosenberg Self-esteem (alpha
.7104) Revised UCLA Loneliness (alpha
.9185) Self-restraint personality scale (alpha
.7612)
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Heterosexual role conflict scale
1) When I feel pressure to get married 2) When my
parents say they want to see grandchildren 3)
When I am asked why I dont have a girlfriend and
I make excuses 4) When my heterosexual friends
laugh at negative characters of gays on
television and I join in 5) When I have a
boyfriend, but refer to him as a girlfriend when
talking about him to my heterosexual
friends 6) When I see an attractive man but
cannot make comments about him in front of my
heterosexual friends 7) When I cannot speak
casually to my heterosexual friends about my gay
friends 8) When I go to a restaurant with my
boyfriend and feel like people are staring at
us 9) When I cannot buy gay magazines openly 10)
When I hear that men should be emotionally
strong 11) When I lower my voice to sound more
masculine 12) When I am around girls and people
comment that I have flowers in both hands (a
slang for being popular with girls) 13)
When a woman says she is attracted to me and I
lie or change the subject 14) When I am not
interested in women but say things to make it
sound like I am 15) When my co-workers invite me
to an establishment where women provide services
(sex and/or drinks)
1.never ---- 5.always
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Heterosexual role conflict scale
This scale measures the role conflicts which
occur when Japanese gay and bisexual men act as
heterosexuals in the society.
The scale was developed by conducting interviews
and 2 pilot surveys. 15 questions ask about
situations to measure frequencies that
participants feel the conflicts as they act as
heterosexuals. (Likert, 4 points)
6 factors by Principal factor analysis,
Eigenvalue over 1.0, Varimax lotation
1.marriage 2.fitting into the
heterosexual society 3.friendships among
gay/bisexual men 4.male partner 5.traditional
gender role 6.female partner
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Demographics of the participants

• Number of participants 1,025
• Average age 27.5 yrs. (14?65)
• Housing live with parents 42.5 alone 42.4
• Occupation full time worker 49.9 student 29.0
• Education university graduated 65.0
• Ever had sexual experience with men 81.1
• Self-identified sexual orientation
• Gay 67.9 Bisexual 18.5
• Dont want to decide 7.7 Not sure 5.2

40-65 n66
14-19 n92
30-39 n262
20-29 n600
Age of participants
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Information learned about homosexuality at
schools in the past (multiple answers)
723
Not at all
71
12.9
Negative information
131
Inappropriate information
91.2
Homosexuality as abnormal
7.3
74
7.9
Positive information
80
1.1
Others
11
0
250
500
750
Number of responses
11
Experience of being harassed/verbally abused
69.7
Seen the situation of verbal abuse with sexuality
related terms eg. queer, fagot
82.7
General harassment experience
59.6
Verbally abused experience, teased by sexuality
related terms eg. queer, fagot
Number of responses
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Coming out to parents
Coming out to parents
6.7
69
Coming out to mother only
4.8
49
Coming out to father only
0.3
3
0
20
40
60
80
Number of participants
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Coming out to others except parents
N
N
Only one
Over 10
69
N
23
45
N
N
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Heterosexual role conflict and Depression (SDS)

Depression score
Oneway ANOVA
44
42.9
42
39.66
40
37.29
38
36
low medium
high
34
Hetero sexual role conflict
p
medium
high
low
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Heterosexual role conflict and Self-esteem
Oneway ANOVA
Self-esteem score

35
34.34
34
33
32.12
32
31.2
31
30
low medium
high
29
28
Hetero sexual role conflict
p
medium
low
high
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Heterosexual role conflict and Anxiety (STAI)
Oneway ANOVA
Anxiety score

60
53.84
55
49.22
50
44.47
45
40
low medium
high
35
30
Hetero sexual role conflict
p
high
medium
low
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Heterosexual role conflict and Loneliness
Oneway ANOVA
Loneliness score

50
47.98
48
46
43.58
44
42
40.04
40
low medium
high
38
36
Hetero sexual role conflict
p
medium
low
high
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Anxiety (STAI cut off point 44) 68.4 had
anxiety symptom
Number of participants
point
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Correlations mental health among JGB
Verbal abused Experience, queer, fagot
r.181


Heterosexual role conflict
r.294
Depression


r.392
.116
Anxiety


r.329
.588
Self restraint personality

r.-212

.150
Self-esteem
General harassment experience


r.188
r.317
Loneliness
p
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Path diagram of mental health among Japanese gay
and bisexual men
R2 .109
.303
-.265
-.136
Self restraint personality
Self-esteem
.291
-.290
-.133
R2 .637
.116
R2 .567
R2 .113
.121
.600
Verbal abuse experienced
Heterosexual Role Conflict
Anxiety
Depression
.144
.195
R2 .160
.109
.319
.166
Loneliness
.261
p
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Discussion
Findings of the study predicted that there are
existence of sexuality issues behind the
harassment and verbal abuse and lack of
information on homosexuality in Japanese schools.
Path diagram showed mental conflicts by verbally
abused experiences and acting as heterosexuals in
society seems to predict the negative influence
to the gay and bisexual mens mental health. In
junior high and high schools, lessons about
sexuality and positive or neutral information
about homosexuality are needed. For findings
are limited to JGB whom have access to the
internet that the results cant be generalized.
However, this study showed the possibilities of a
quantitative method targeting hard-to-reach
sexual minorities.
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For more information
Yasuharu Hidaka, MS Department of Global health,
School of Public Health, Kyoto
University Yoshida-konoe, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto,
606-8501, Japan TEL [phone]
FAX[phone] E-mail yass_at_kta.att.ne.jp