Predictors of attitudes toward LGBTQ+ students and school climate in English secondary schools: regression and mediation analyses of peer and adult relationships

Abstract

Background: LGBTQ+ youth face persistent challenges in UK secondary schools. Gaining a deeper understanding of school environments can inform efforts to improve their wellbeing, but studies on relational factors like peer and adult relationships remain limited in the UK. Method: Analysing survey responses from 241 LGBTQ+ (12.4%) and non-LGBTQ+ (77.2%) students (10.4% unsure) within five secondary schools in England, this study explores the predictive and mediating roles of peer and adult connectedness. Regression analyses treated positive views of the LGBTQ+ community, perceived school climate for LGBTQ+ students, and relationships with school peers as dependent variables (DVs), controlling for demographic and attitudinal covariates including religiosity and a SES proxy. Mediation analyses explored the possibility of causal relationships between these variables. Results: Regression results showed that student perceptions that Adults care about them predicted all three DVs: positive views of the LGBTQ+ community (b = 0.374, p < 0.001), School Climate for LGBTQ+ students (b = 1.646, p = 0.006), and relationships with school peers (b = 0.325, p < 0.001). Moreover, significant interactions revealed that such adult support was particularly important for males’ experiences of the school climate (b = 3.350, p = 0.002) and peer relationships (b = 0.266, p= 0.043). Critically, bootstrapped mediation analyses (20,000 iterations) revealed that relationships with school peers partially mediated LGB students’ assessment of their School Climate, indirect effect ab = 0.69, 95% [.04, 1.67] (partially standardized 0.14 95% [.01, 0.31]), accounting for 8.5% of the total effect. However, relationships with adults in schools did not emerge as mediator. Conclusions: Findings substantiate the theoretical value of including “Adults at school care about me” as a potentially broad protective predictor in future studies and amending and broadening the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale with the adult and peer scales proposed here. However, based on our mediation analyses, only peer relationships, but not adult relationships seem to account for at least part of the experience of lower evaluations of school climate among LGB students. Practically, we recommend studying the effectiveness and feasibility of DfE-aligned interventions such as a “trusted adult” mentor training and use of the Adults scale proposed here to set benchmarks for monitoring inclusive support in line with the UK Equality Act. With a five-school scope limiting generalizability, future studies should be multi-site, ideally longitudinal studies and use such designs to confirm these preliminary results, incorporating an intersectional focus and transgender subsamples.