Perceptions of moral disengagement related to homophobic bullying experienced in childhood or adolescence: a study with university students

Abstract

Homophobic bullying is experienced by children and adolescents and is related to provocations, discrimination, physical violence and other forms of aggression motivated by sexual orientation. Students at different levels of education who are identified as non-heterosexuals are more likely or at risk for bullying victimization. In addition, this type of experience impacts mental health and the way these subjects internalize the teaching-learning process, as well as the experiences of schooling in different moments of the life cycle, not being restricted to childhood or adolescence. Thus, this study aims to identify moral disengagement perceptions related to homophobic bullying experienced in childhood or adolescence by university students. Through a qualitative research, higher education students who call themselves homosexuals from a private university in the interior of the state of São Paulo will be interviewed. The interview script will address participants' perceptions of the mechanisms of moral disengagement (moral justification, advantageous comparison, euphemistic language, distortion of consequences, dehumanization, victim blaming, displacement of responsibility, and diffusion of responsibility) as motivators for possible bullying experiences. suffered from elementary and high school. Participants will be defined by snowball sampling technique and saturation strategy. Thematic analysis of the data will occur through the proposal of Braun and Clarke. It is expected to understand how participants attribute meanings to situations of violence; identify the consequences of homophobic bullying throughout the life cycle; and how moral disengagement can subsidize anti-bullying interventions. (AU)