Adolescents’ Judgment of Homophobic Name-Calling: The Role of Peer/Friend Context and Emotional Response

Adolescents use some types of homophobic language (e.g., “that’s so gay”) as a form of banter, while other types are directly targeted as an intentional insult (e.g., calling someone a “fag, dyke, homo”). Little research has investigated adolescents’ use and judgments about these types of homophobic language and whether judgments differ if they are used among friends or directed toward non-friend peers. This study investigated how relationship context and victim’s (N = 477, Mage = 14.7, SD = 1.63) emotional responses related to judgments about anti-gay banter and homophobic name-calling. Adolescents evaluated homophobic name-calling as more wrong than anti-gay banter. While adolescents’ evaluations of homophobic name-calling did not differ based on relationship context, adolescents did differentiate between anti-gay banter perpetrated by a friend vs. a peer. Further, emotional responses mediated these relationships in the anti-gay banter situation. These results suggest that adolescents’ judgments about homophobic language are related to the relationship context and the type of homophobic language used.