New research has shown lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students’ mental health outcomes are affected by the environment of the school they attend.
The Auckland University study was the first in the world to compare teachers' ratings of their school's support for LGBT students with the wellbeing and experiences of those students.
Its author, Associate Professor Simon Denny, said the study used information gathered from more than 9,000 students and 3,000 teachers from 96 high schools around New Zealand.
Dr Denny said supportive school environments made a clear difference to students' mental health.
“Supportive school environments were associated with less depression among sexual minority students and also less suicide attempts which is really important, because this really speaks to those poor statistics. And the fact we can actually, if we change the school environment, we can protect these young people from poor outcomes.”
