S5 E29 | The Bullying Pulpit: Practice what You Preach or Preaching to the Choir

This week Ryan Tsapatsaris is back and joins Elizabeth for discussion about bullying behaviors.  A recent study of Middle and High School aged participants revealed that bullied students admitted to also engaging in bullying behaviors.  The relationship was stronger for gender non-conforming students than for cisgender students.  Transgender identities were also more strongly associated with perpetration of bullying than subjection to bullying.  Ryan and Elizabeth describe the study and findings.  We also discuss some interesting aspects of the data set, which becomes a jumping off point for a summary of recent trends in gender identification: As of 2023, Generation Z survey respondents have been much less likely to identify as either trans or queer.  We also talk about the risks involved in doing this kind of research and secondary analysis of data.  Social scientists should be able to pose difficult and unpopular questions, and extend research and theory to contemporary social issues, without constant worries about interpersonal and professional cancellation campaigns.

Podcast notes

Topic article:

Heino, E., Ellonen, N., & Kaltiala, R. (2021). Transgender identity is associated with bullying involvement among Finnish adolescents. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 612424.  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.612424/full

Mentioned articles:

Sex and the census: why surveys should not conflate sex and gender identity

https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/academia-in-an-age-of-assholes

https://unherd.com/newsroom/why-are-fewer-young-people-identifying-as-trans/ (Kaufmann)

https://www.heterodoxcentre.com/research/chss-report-no-5/

Trans identification really is in free fall: New data (Twenge)