School victimization in transgender people: A systematic review

School violence has traditionally been defined as a physical and/or psychological persecution behavior that one or more students perform against another repeatedly and which place the victim in a situation of helplessness. This provokes negative consequences for victims, such as decreased self-esteem, anxiety, and depression, which makes it difficult for them to be integrated in the school environment and hinders their normal development during their schooling (Jiménez-Barbero et al., 2016, Olweus, 1994, Olweus, 1996). This phenomenon is especially concerning in the case of transgender people, as various studies have reported that this group suffers more bullying than other students (Moran et al., 2018, Walls et al., 2018). Especially traumatic in this group may be the presence of poly-victimization, which is understood as the experimentation of five or more forms of victimization (Finkelhor, Ormrod, & Turner, 2007). In fact, studies such as Sterzing, Ratliff, Gartner, McGeough, and Johnson (2017) have reported significantly higher poly-victimization figures in transgender adolescents than their cisgender peers, identifying themselves as the most frequent: physical assault (81.3%), bullying victimization (88.8%), sexual victimization (80.6%), child maltreatment (78.8%), property victimization (80.1%), and indirect or witnessed forms of victimization.

There are a number of individual, family, and social circumstances that could be influencing the victimization of transgender people during this stage and that would require careful study (Walls et al., 2018). To this is added the fact that transgender adolescents are twice as likely to experience absenteeism (Day et al., 2018) due to the consequences of victimization in school, which, according to other authors, hinders their training and limits their future professional development (Poteat, Mereish, DiGiovanni, & Koenig, 2011).

In this regard, it has been reported that LGBTQ inclusive education and accessibility of LGBTQ-related information in schools promotes a greater perception of safety among the transgender collective (Toomey, McGuire, & Russell, 2012). In addition, support from classmates, teachers, and parents has been linked to a reduction in the negative consequences of victimization (Moran et al., 2018, Ruiz-Hernández et al., 2019) and, indeed, according to Gower et al., 2018, Gower et al., 2018, the perception of a safe school climate has important implications in the academic performance and psychosocial development of transgender people that would promote their inclusion.

In this sense, the literature highlights the need for schools to implement prevention programs against prejudice-based bullying towards transgender people (Jiménez-Barbero et al., 2016). Similarly, schools are encouraged to support transgender youth by creating support groups for them, employing trained teachers, and including content on this topic in the school planning (Clark, 2017).

Scientific evidence reveals a number of circumstances that influence the victimization of transgender people in school. Several authors indicate the need to carry out interventions that guarantee the safety and development of transgender students through the involvement of peers, teachers, and other professionals (Bragg et al., 2018, Clark, 2017). Although there is a wealth of research on bullying in this collective, the findings of individual studies have not yet been synthesized to draw general conclusions about it. In fact, to our knowledge, this study is the first systematic review developed in accordance with the recommendations of the PRISMA statement (Moher et al., 2015), focused on the study of the factors that influence the victimization process of transgender adolescents.

The main objective of our study was to examine the factors that influence the victimization of transgender people during the school stage. In addition, some secondary objectives were proposed: (a) to determine the magnitude of the different types of victimization in transgender students; (b) to analyze the consequences of the school victimization process in transgender students; and (c) to review the transgender victimization prevention strategies used in schools.