Publications by authors named "Mieke van Houtte"

Research has shown that gender role attitudes develop during adolescence; however, the relevant predictors remain a matter of debate. In adolescence, the school environment gains in importance. Thus, the present study investigates how students' and especially teachers' culture and composition predict the development of gender role attitudes in young adolescents.

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The prevalence of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses and medication use has increased over time around the world, but significant regional differences remain. This paper aims to determine and explain disparities in ADHD prevalence and medication use among school-aged children in two distinct school systems, in Flanders (Belgium) and Québec (Canada). We present detailed descriptive and comparative analyses of data from 35 schools, 114 teachers, and 1046 parents (children) that were collected as part of a comparative international project.

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Diagnosis and pharmacological treatment of ADHD are more common among the youngest children in a classroom, born in the months immediately preceding the school entry cutoff date. The mechanisms behind this phenomenon, called the relative age effect (RAE), are not yet well understood. Nearly all hypotheses involve the school system, various teachers' actions, and concern children's immaturity.

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Visibility management (VM) refers to the regulation of disclosure of one's sexual orientation for the purposes of maintaining privacy as well as minimizing stigma, harm, or marginalization. Research on how lesbian women and gay men (LGs) manage the visibility of their sexual orientation in the workplace is scarce. In this study, we tested a model that investigates the relationships between VM on the one hand, and specific job characteristics, experiencing the work environment as more or less LG friendly, and personal homonegative experiences on the other.

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Schools are often heteronormative environments, negatively influencing the wellbeing of LGB students. Less is known about the impact on gender-variant adolescents. Hence, this study investigates the wellbeing of gender-variant students-as evidenced by their gender (a)typicality and pressure for gender conformity- in different school cultures-as evidenced by the level of traditional gender role attitudes and homonegativity.

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In this study the characteristics of the sexual debut of men who have sex with men (MSM) and men who have sex with women (MSW) age 35 or younger (N = 1,201) were compared with one another. We investigated whether these characteristics were associated with sexual health and behavior, and to what extent. Compared to MSW, MSM tended to be older when they had their first sexual intercourse; their first sex partner was older, they felt less ready, and they experienced more pain.

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Objectives: The aim of this study is to investigate the association between ethnic composition in school and the ethnic prejudice of teachers, controlling for the individual characteristics of teachers and their perceptions of pupils' teachability.

Method: Multilevel analyses were carried out on data for 499 Flemish teachers in 44 Flemish (Belgian) secondary schools, collected through an online questionnaire. In this study, ethnic prejudice means a negative attitude to Moroccans, Turks, and Eastern Europeans.

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This study focuses on the interplay of perceived ethnic discrimination by teachers, parents' ethnic socialization practices, and ethnic minority students' sense of academic futility. Since discrimination creates barriers beyond control of the individual, the first research goal is to examine the association of perceived ethnic discrimination by teachers with ethnic minority students' sense of academic futility. The second research goal is to focus on the role of perceived parental ethnic socialization (e.

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The understanding of how lesbians, gays, and bisexuals cope with homophobic violence is limited. Therefore, on the one hand, this study focuses on avoidance, problem-oriented, and emotion-oriented coping as general coping styles. On the other hand, special attention is paid to visibility management as a coping strategy that can be applied in a heteronormative context.

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In view of the possible negative mental health outcomes of antigay violence and the limited understanding of how lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) men and women cope with such experiences, this study examined the coping and social support-seeking strategies that victims adopt. In 2012, in-depth interviews were conducted with 19 Flemish sexual minority victims of violence. These in-depth interviews show that antigay violence can generate profound negative outcomes.

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Experiences of homophobic violence seem to differ for various sexual-minority subgroups. Previous research has outlined that experiences differ for men and women, and for gender conforming and nonconforming lesbian, gay, and bisexual men and women (LGBs). In this article, these relationships are studied by making a distinction between four types of homophobic violence: verbal, physical, material, and sexual.

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The role of visibility management strategies, as an extended measure of outness related to sexual orientation, has been rarely studied with the aim of explaining the experience of external stressors (i.e., experiences of everyday discrimination and perceived sanctioning of cross-gender behavior) and internal stressors (i.

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This article develops a model that describes relations among environmental characteristics, discrimination and visibility management, and the experience of minority stressors by lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youth. The article elaborates on how visibility management (i.e.

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Studies reporting associations between genetic factors and mood-related traits have often been criticized (i) for failing to take into account the role of the social environment in which individuals act and (ii) for not maintaining a 'transparent narrative connection' between genes and outcomes. In a sample of adolescents, we analyzed whether PvuII and XbaI, two polymorphisms on the ESR1 (Estrogen Receptor Gene α) were related to depressive symptoms, and considered whether daily hassles moderated this relationship and whether anger expression style mediated this relationship. Analyses suggested that ESR1 polymorphisms are relevant to the intra-sexual variability in depressive symptoms in boys and that the experience of daily hassles moderated this relationship.

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This study focuses on differences in sense of belonging between lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) and heterosexual students. Data from 1,745 secondary school students were collected with an online survey. Step-wise multiple regression analyses was used to investigate the relationship between sexual orientation and sense of school belonging.

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The schools-as-communities perspective provides a popular explanation for school-disruptive behavior, stating that interpersonal bonding at school and feelings of school belonging prevent misconduct. In this article, we build on this perspective in three ways. First, we test whether the preventive influence of school belonging acts at the individual or school level.

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This study investigates how young lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals deal with coming out and how perceived personal growth may result from that experience. We considered stress-related growth as a mediator between coming-out experiences and internalized homonegativity (IH). Our sample was taken from an online survey and is comprised of 502 LGBs aged 14-30.

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Objectives: Androgen activity has been implicated in a range of traits and behaviours that have well-documented sex differences. However, the results of the studies on the relationship between testosterone and these traits and behaviours are inconsistent. This study has analyzed i) whether CAG repeat length, a presumed modulator of androgen receptor sensitivity, is associated with sex-dimorphic traits and behaviours (aggressive and non-aggressive risk-taking (ART and NART), dominance, depressive symptoms and self-esteem), and ii) whether CAG repeat length interacts with free testosterone (FT) with respect to these traits and behaviours.

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Although the role of testosterone in the aetiology of social dominance is often suggested, surprisingly few studies have addressed the relationship between sex steroid hormones and dominance as a personality trait. In this paper, the relationship between testosterone and dominance is studied in a sample of adolescent boys and girls, taking into account the moderating role of gender ideology and same-sex peer group orientation. A direct association between free testosterone (FT) and dominance was found in girls but not in boys.

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