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“Alterophobia”, which refers to prejudice directed towards members of “alternative” sub‐cultures, has been manifest in criminal cases such as the murder of Sophie Lancaster in 2007 (UK). The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether alterophobia is also evident in patterns of school bullying behaviour.

A total of 820 fifth‐year students (16‐17 years old; 339 male (41.3 per cent), 481 female (58.7 per cent), at nine secondary schools in Ireland, were asked to respond to a short, specifically constructed questionnaire, concerning membership of groups and sub‐cultures, and bullying behaviour.

Self‐identified membership of sub‐cultures was infrequent; reports of perceiving that one was identified by others as a member of a sub‐culture were more frequent. Self‐identified members of sub‐cultures reported both having been bullied and having bullied others more frequently than did members of the general sample. Participants expressed that members of “alternative” sub‐cultures (“moshers/rockers”, “goths”, and “emos”) were more likely to be bullied, and that members of “non‐alternative” sub‐cultures (“chavs” and “D4s”) were more likely to bully others. It was concluded that “alterophobic bullying” was a reality, and that members of “alternative” sub‐cultures may be considered to be “at risk” of being bullied.

This study is based on a simple and original questionnaire, and therefore provides indicative/exploratory findings; if a subsequent survey method were attempted, equivalent definitions of sub‐cultures would have to be ensured. It is possible to see how alternative research methods (e.g. focus groups) would permit for advances in understanding in this area.

It is suggested that specific mention of alterophobia in school anti‐bullying policies should be made, and that closer attention to the psychology of prejudice and “pro‐conformist aggression” could inform future anti‐bullying efforts.

The paper is the first to focus explicitly on “alterophobia”, and provides the first empirical evidence on “alterophobic bullying”.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of the basic factors of age and gender in homophobic bullying behaviour, in order that recommendations for the design of anti-bullying programmes specific to homophobic bullying could be made.

In total, 475 fifth year students (ca. 16-17 years old) and 561-second year students (ca. 13-14 years old) at six secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland completed an English-language translation of a questionnaire previously used in a Norwegian study of sexual orientation and bullying behaviour (Roland and Auestad, 2009).

No evidence of “age-related declines” were found in reports of either bullying or homophobic bullying. Males were significantly more likely than females to report involvement (as both perpetrators and targets) in both bullying and homophobic bullying.

It was concluded that senior secondary school students, as well as their younger counterparts, should be involved in anti-bullying interventions; that males should be especially focused upon; and that programmes specific to anti-homophobic bullying, potentially targeting pre-adolescent students, should be supported.

This paper suggests evidence-based priorities for intervention programmes specific to homophobic bullying, accounts of which have been, to date, absent in the research literature.