| The following dissertation offers an intervention to combat the negative effects that bullying has on lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth in high school. The literature review demonstrates the need for such an intervention through examples of the damaging effects that such bullying has on LGB youth. These incidents of bullying are far too common in American schools, and the effects far reaching, as the media has been saturated with stories of "gay teen suicides" in recent years. While affirmative interventions are currently the status quo for work with LGB populations, it can be argued that these are limited. In addition, current strategies for reducing bullying in schools are preventative in nature and neglect support for the victims. Instead, it can be argued that an integration of mindfulness, cognitive, and affirmative therapies as well as peer support to be implemented in a school group with bullying victims is a more effective antidote to the problem of victimization caused by in-school LGB bullying. A treatment manual along these lines is offered as the results of the dissertation, along with research questions and their relative hypotheses, and a potential methodology for developing the manual and measuring its effectiveness. Finally, a discussion of limitations, possibilities, and implications for future practice and research is included. |
