The overall aim of this thesis is to assess how gay-related name-calling is used in different contexts among a sample of young Norwegian adolescents in ninth grade (14 years), and to assess what consequences the name-calling may have in terms of depressive symptoms. In this thesis, I interpret gay-related name-calling within a microaggressive framework. Assessing gay-related name-calling is challenging because researchers define and operationalize gay-related name-calling differently. Furthermore, little is known about the context in which the name-calling occurs. In this thesis, I therefore explore how young Norwegian adolescents differ in their use of gay-related name-calling and in their reports of being called these names when the agent and target of the name-calling is differentiated by friendship, likability and acquaintance status. In the research literature, the violation of male role norms is the most frequently cited reason for engaging in gay-related name-calling, however little is known about the role played by the relational context in this conjunction. In this thesis, I thus address how young male adolescents’ endorsements of underlying dimensions of traditional male norms are associated with gay-related name-calling targeting different victims and how attitudes towards this name-calling, subjective norms concerning the name-calling and school-related factors are associated with gay-related namecalling. The association between gay-related name-calling and aversive mental health outcomes is widely documented; however, previous research exploring this association has not taken into consideration the relationship between the agent and the target of the name-calling, or whether it occurred in a bullying situation. In this thesis I explore how being called gay-related names by different agents is associated with depressive symptoms, and to what extent being bullied moderates the relationship between being called gay-related names and depressive symptoms.
89 s,, utgitt av UiB i 2016.