Do LGBQ+ YP have different aspirations for their future?

lgbtq+
aspirations
school leavers
Author

Hertfordshire Public Health Evidence and Intelligence

Published

July 17, 2023

Abstract

Young LGBTQ+ students face different lived experiences than straight/heterosexual students. This could influence their decision-making around aspirations after leaving school, such as their career, education, or training. This brief analysis seeks to ascertain whether a student’s sexual orientation has a relationship with their aspirations after school.

Table 1: Summary count of students on question asking about sexual orientation in YPHWS
answer number %
Gay, lesbian or bisexual 1035 9.3
Heterosexual/Straight 8445 75.7
Other 235 2.1
Prefer not to say 660 5.9
Undecided/Questioning 665 6.0

The above table displays the proportion of responses around sexual orientation in YPHWS. Heterosexual/straight students make up just over 3/4 of the total responses, followed by gay, lesbian, or bisexual at just under 10%. Smaller proportions ticked options other, undecided/questioning, and prefer not to say.

Here, we identify that a student’s sexual orientation has a very statistically significant relationship with pursuing a job/career, undertaking further training and with uncertainty in their career pathway after school.

Methods

One of the questions coded in the YPHWS survey is what do you plan to do as a next step after leaving school? This is a multi-factorial answer, where students can respond either yes, no, or maybe to several options:

  • Education

  • Job

  • Training

  • Family

  • Uncertain

  • Other

We performed a chi-squared test for each of the different prospects questions on the tables below for each of the responses, along with their relative proportions. Note, these numbers have been suppressed to the nearest 5 to prevent disclosure, but the actual chi-squared tests have been performed on the raw numbers.

For the purposes of this analysis, students who answered undecided/questioning and other are grouped together with students who answered gay, lesbian or bisexual. Students who answered prefer not to say were excluded, owing to the large difference in responses between this category and the other relevant categories.


More on chi-squared tests

We can put the results of students answering the question in YPHWS in a contingency table, which tallies the responses into a table like:

Care-experienced Maybe No Yes
Yes
Maybe
No

With contingency tables, we can perform chi-square tests, which examines whether the categories of the rows and columns of a contingency table are statistically significantly associated.

The chi-squared test compares the observed frequencies from the data with expected frequencies if there were null or no relationship between the variables.

With chi-squared tests, we need sufficient size in each of the cells inside the table. While the number of students not care-experienced outnumber the number of students who answered prefer not to say or yes, there are still sufficient numbers to perform the test (>5) in each of the responses.

After the critical chi-squared test value is calculated, we then use the degrees of freedom to match the results on a distribution table with a significance threshold to determine statistical significance, usually set at 0.05. More about chi-squared tests can be found at: BMJ - The Chi squared tests

Students answering prefer not to say were omitted from the test.

Results

Table 2: Statistical Significance of Aspirational Pathways After School for Care-experienced Status in Students
Summary Table of Aspirational Pathways
education job training family unsure other
❌ ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ❌

Job/career

Table 3: Plan to get a job after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 2130 595 4725
LGBQ+ 595 175 975
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 29% 8% 63%
LGBQ+ 34% 10% 56%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 1: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for LGBQ+ and non-LGBQ+ students on pursuing a job after school

Training

Table 4: Plan to train for a skilled job after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 3070 1590 2525
LGBQ+ 765 485 450
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 43% 22% 35%
LGBQ+ 45% 29% 26%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 2: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for LGBQ+ and non-LGBQ+ students on pursuing training after school

Uncertain

Table 5: Aren’t sure what they want to do after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 1875 3000 1940
LGBQ+ 445 610 620
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Heterosexual 28% 44% 28%
LGBQ+ 27% 36% 37%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 3: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for LGBQ+ and non-LGBQ+ students on uncertainty on what they want to do after leaving school

Conclusions/implications

We identify that whether a student is straight/heterosexual or part of the LGBQ+ group has a very statistically significant effect with plans to get a job after leaving school, plans to pursue training, and uncertainty with what to do.

These results are noteworthy as they highlight that differences in certain students’ aspirational pathways can be influenced by their sexual orientation. This can be useful for stakeholders involved in the career development of high school students; factors such as diversity and inclusiveness in the workplace, workplace hostility, the costs of self-identity disclosure, self-identity confusion, and inadequate career counselling and guidance services need to be accounted for when considering differences between LGBQ+ and non LGBQ+ students.

More on the results


Below shows the chi-square tests applied to the contingency tables collated together:

question x^2 p.value
education 5.73 0.06
job 35.66 0.00
training 58.18 0.00
family 0.24 0.89
unsure 52.02 0.00
other 0.24 0.89

A p.value of less than 0.05 indicates statistical significance, and that there is a relationship between the student’s LGBTQ+ label and the specific prospect response.

A chi-squared test is a simple nonparametric test which only tells us of an association if statistical significance is found. Further analyses can be performed to elucidate further details on how or why the relationship between a student’s sexual orientation affects their decision for pursuing a job after leaving school, training, and uncertainty with what to do, but these are beyond the scope of this report.

Sub-analysis on transgender students

The crux of this analysis focuses on the sexual orientation of students, which is separate from that of biological sex. For the 2022 release of YPHWS, the survey redefined the question on biological sex to one around gender identity, which expanded the number of options available, allowing students to tick non-binary and transgender as responses.

These populations have received an increased of amount of news coverage in recent years, and research has shown they have differing health experiences and sociological outcomes. As a result, we performed an additional analysis on the non-binary and transgender population, with identical methodology as we have done those of LGBQ+ students above.

Sub-analysis results

Table 6: Summary count of students on question asking about biological sex in YPHWS
answer number %
Female 5415 48.6
Male 4490 40.3
Non-Binary 150 1.3
Other 90 0.8
Prefer not to say 110 1.0
Transgender 120 1.1

Given relatively small numbers of the non-binary and transgender student population, these two categories were pooled together. Female and male are grouped into sex assigned at birth. Students who answered other and prefer not to say were excluded.

Table 7: Statistical Significance of Aspirational Pathways After School for Care-experienced Status in Students
Summary Table of Aspirational Pathways
education job training family unsure other
✅ ✅ ✅ ❌ ✅ ❌

Education

Table 8: Plan to pursue further education after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 65 25 155
Sex assigned at birth 2235 580 6185
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 27% 10% 63%
Sex assigned at birth 25% 6% 69%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 4: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for non-binary/transgender and sex assigned at birth students on plans to pursue to further education after leaving school

Job/career

Table 9: Plan to get a job after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 90 25 120
Sex assigned at birth 2565 725 5485
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 38% 11% 51%
Sex assigned at birth 29% 8% 63%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 5: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for non-binary/transgender and sex assigned at birth students on plans to pursue a job after leaving school

Training

Table 10: Plan to train for a skilled job after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 100 80 50
Sex assigned at birth 3645 1955 2880
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 43% 35% 22%
Sex assigned at birth 43% 23% 34%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 6: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for non-binary/transgender and sex assigned at birth students on plans to pursue further training after leaving school

Uncertain

Table 11: Aren’t sure what they want to do after leaving school
(a) Numbers (suppressed)
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 50 80 100
Sex assigned at birth 2235 3465 2390
(b) Percentages
sexuality Maybe No Yes
Non-binary/transgender 22% 35% 43%
Sex assigned at birth 28% 43% 30%
(c) Results
Significance
very statistically significant
Figure 7: Normalised bar graph showing proportion of answers for non-binary/transgender and sex assigned at birth students around uncertainty on what to do after leaving school

From the chi-squared test results, there are very statistically significant relationships with non-binary/transgender status and career aspirations in pursuing further education, pursuing a job/career, pursuing further training and uncertainty. What is noticeable is that for non-binary/transgender students, the proportion answering yes is below those of students identifying with their sex assigned at birth for pursuing further education, job/career, further training, but not uncertainty, highlighting the more precarious nature of non-binary and transgender student’s livlihoods after secondary education.