Inclusive school practices for all youth: A European Cross‐National Study of general, sexual orientation, and gender identity‐based bullying

Bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI‐based bullying) is prevalent across Europe. This study examined the associations among student‐level and school‐level inclusive school practices and general and SOGI‐based bullying across LGBTQ+ students and heterosexual cisgender students. Data were drawn from 13 European countries, with a final analytic sample of n = 6730. Participants had a mean age of 16.37 years ( SD = 1.46), and 58% identified as LGBTQ+. Results from multivariate multilevel models indicated that SOGI‐inclusive anti‐bullying policies at the student level and positive LGBTQ+ representation at both the school and student levels were associated with lower rates of bullying, whereas SOGI‐inclusive sex education was not significantly associated with bullying outcomes. Further analyses showed that these inclusive school practices were negatively associated with general and SOGI‐based bullying to the same extent. More importantly, such associations were similar between LGBTQ+ students and heterosexual cisgender students. Overall, the findings highlight that inclusive school practices could be protective against both SOGI‐based and general bullying for all students, emphasizing the need for school interventions that explicitly address stigma toward LGBTQ+ identities to foster safer and more supportive school environments.