1. Youth Disability Victimization: An Analysis of the Youth Bias Victimization Questionnaire (YBVQ)
Sarah Rosatone, Lisa Jones PhD, Kimberly Mitchell PhD
Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire
Methods
Incident Characteristics
Study Overview
There are increasing concerns about how bias-based victimization may contribute to traumatic stress for vulnerable youth. This study uses data from a new instrument, the Youth Bias Victimization Questionnaire (YBVQ), which asks youth about experiences with a wide variety of bias-motivated victimizations. The current study focuses on comparisons of bias motivated victimization experiences among students with and without disabilities.
Participants: Participants were 854 youth and young adults, ages 13-21, who completed surveys about personal bias-related victimization experiences. Participants were from Boston, Philadelphia, and areas of rural and suburban Tennessee: 63% were female, 29% were Black/African American,13% were Hispanic or Latino, and 27% reported having a physical or learning disability.
Procedure: Participants were recruited from youth-serving agencies, housing authorities, festivals, and schools. The survey was administered using a computer assisted self-interview (CASI) with SNAP survey software on a tablet or through an online link to a web-based survey. On average, the survey took 15 minutes to complete and each participant received a $25 gift card. All procedures were approved by the UNH IRB.
Measures: Newly developed measures assessed lifetime and past year exposure to bias-related victimization (i.e., because of race/ethnicity, religion, immigrant status, disability, sexual orientation, or gender identity). To measure physical and learning disability status, youth were asked: “Do you have physical heath problems or disabilities that affect the kinds of activities that you can do?” and “Do you have any issues or disabilities that affect how you interact with people or learn, like ADHD, autism or a learning disorder?” A 9-item scale measured distress symptoms (e.g., feeling lonely in the last month; feeling sad in the last month); additional scales measured past year general victimization and social support.​
31 participants with disabilities reported details of their bias victimization experiences.
68% reported that the incident happened at school.
61% reported that the incident happened online.
71 % reported reported that the same person had victimized them more than once.
39% reported that the victimization went on for more than one year.
The most common type of victimization experience for youth with disabilities is being called names, followed by having rumors spread about them.
Research Question:
To what degree do bias victimization experiences impact youth with disabilities?
Objectives:
Explore rates and characteristics of bias victimization experiences that youth with disabilities report.
Compare differences in bias victimization rates for youth with different types of disability versus no reported disability. 
Understand how youth with disabilities experience general victimization and social support differently.
Explore whether experiencing disability victimization is uniquely related to increased distress symptomology.
Results
Discussion
Table 1. Sample Demographics
Youth with both a learning and physical disability experience significantly greater levels of bias victimization related to disability than youth with only a physical disability or only a learning disability.
Youth with disabilities experience:
Higher levels of general victimization
Lower sense of social supports
Higher distress symptoms
Regression analyses indicate that bias victimization experiences uniquely contribute to distress symptoms for youth with disability, even controlling for other contributing factors. Non-heterosexual status and other victimization history also uniquely predict greater levels of distress for these youth.
Figure 1. General Victimization
Youth Characteristicsa
No reported disabilities (n=624)
% (n)
Learning or physical disability (n=230) X2
Race/ethnicity
Black/African American
30 (187)
24 (54)
Latino/Hispanic
16 (96)
8 (17)
White
42 (259)
54 (123)
Other/mixed
12 (75)
15 (33)
16.742***
Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual
73 (447)
59 (135)
Gay/Lesbian/Homosexual
8 (50)
11 (25)
Bisexual
11 (67)
17 (38)
Other
13 (30)
14.744*
Family Country of Origin
Parents born in the U.S.
69 (419)
78 (171)
Parents born outside the U.S.
31 (190)
22 (48)
6.774*
**p< .01,*** p< .001
p=.000
Figure 2. Social Supports
Limitations
Introduction
Our study sample focused on three different geographic areas so findings are not representative of all youth nationally.
While the self-administered and anonymous survey was designed to promote candor in responses it is possible that not all participants answered the questions honestly.
Our study measured disability through self-report. Not all participants may have reported a disability honestly or correctly.
Bias victimization experiences are important to consider when evaluating the health of youth and young adults because of the potential for these experiences to have long-lasting impacts on mental and physical well-being.
Bully victimization for students with disabilities is one and a half times greater than the national average for students without disabilities.1
Disability victimization can be influenced by other sociodemographic variations such as race and socio-economic status.2
Adolescents with intellectual disabilities who have experienced victimization exhibit social problems and social withdrawal, as well as emotional and relational problems.3
This study was supported by Grant No R2-CX-K127 awarded by the National Institute of Justice (PI: Jones). Points of view or opinions in this presentation are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.
aOther demographics (age, gender and religion) were not significant for differences between disability status.
Table 2. Disability Victimization
Figure 3. Distress Symptoms
Disability-based Bias Victimization
No reported disabilities (n=624)
% (n)
Physical disability (n=60)
Learning disability (n=91)
Learning and physical disability (n=46) X2
Last Year
4 (27)
12 (7)
14 (13)
37 (17)
71.451***
Ever
8 (47)
23 (14)
28 (25)
52 (24)
98.753***
*p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
Future Directions
Future studies should include a larger sample size, younger participants, and measures to determine differences among types of disability.
Future studies should be done with multiple measures of respondent disability status.
Table 3. Multiple Regression Analysis: Predictors of Emotional Distress for Youth with Disabilities (n=230) B
SE B β t p
Racea
-.094
.140
-.047
-.671
.503
Sexual Orientationa
.613
.133
.302
4.601
.000
Country of Origina
-.081
.169
-.033
-.481
.631
Bias Victimizationb
.350
.176
.138
1.992
.048
Other Victimization
.128
.050
.178
2.588
.010
Social Support (Mean)
-.074
.069
-.071
-1.075
.284
*p< .05, **p< .01, ***p< .001
References
Blake, J. J., Lund, E. M., Zhou, Q., Kwok, O. M., & Benz, M. R. (2012). National prevalence rates of bullying victimization among students with disabilities in the United States. School Psychology Quarterly, 27(4), 210.
Turner, H. A., Vanderminden, J., Finklehor, D., Hamby, S., & Shattuck, A. (2011). Disability and victimization in a national sample of children and youth. Child Maltreatment, 16(4),
Maïiano, C., Aimé, A., Salvas, M. C., Morin, A. J., & Normand, C. L. (2016). Prevalence and correlates of bullying perpetration and victimization among school-aged youth with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review. Research in developmental disabilities, 49,
aMinority status for all variables tested; bPast year disability-based bias victimization