This study is an exploratory study to examine the realities of anti-gay violence and the effects on homosexual youths' psychosocial characteristics, on which there has been no research conducted as yet in Korea. A survey was conducted with 63 homosexu...
This study is an exploratory study to examine the realities of anti-gay violence and the effects on homosexual youths' psychosocial characteristics, on which there has been no research conducted as yet in Korea. A survey was conducted with 63 homosexual adolescents aged 13-18 through snowball sampling method. The findings suggest that half of the respondents reported verbal assaults due to their sexual orientation and 10% of the respondents reported physical assaults, which indicated a serious level of anti-homosexual sentiment and threats of violence against homosexuals in Korean society. From this, an observation between the psychosocial characteristics of the respondents and anti-gay violence was carried out:gender, age, ‘coming-out' and ‘outing' frequency, depression, suicidal risk and delinquency level were associated with the anti-gay violence experiences of the respondents. Recommendations for counseling and other social work practice for the homosexual adolescents were made based on the results of the study.