Elche sixth-graders who read LGBT-themed books for a year gave more accepting answers than a control group

The percentages in this study stand for small numbers of children. The 6.5% of the control group who were reluctant to have a lesbian or gay friend is about three of its 46 pupils ^[17]. On the possibility of feeling attracted to someone of the same sex, the experimental group's positive answers come to about 14 of 31 pupils, against about 13 of 46 controls ^[18]. Rejection on the same item was about three experimental pupils and about 14 controls ^[19].

That attraction item shows the widest gap, 16.9 percentage points on positive answers ^[20]. Guillermo Soler, María Ribes and José Rovira-Collado, the University of Alicante team behind the paper in Education Sciences ^[2], are precise about what it captures. The authors said that "these findings do not imply that students identify as homosexual or bisexual, as the question assessed their willingness to accept that possibility within themselves, rather than determining their sexual orientation." ^[11]

The groups were compared once, at the end of the school year, on the same questionnaire ^[7]. The phys.org account does not say how pupils were assigned to the two groups, whether they were surveyed before the year began, or whether the attraction gap reached statistical significance ^[4]. Without a baseline, a group that started the year more accepting would produce the same end-of-year result with no help from the books.

The intervention was also more than a reading list. Alongside the texts, the sessions ran guided activities to analyse how non-normative characters were represented, and passages showing rejection or bullying were taken up through dialogue ^[6]. All of it ran inside Spanish language and literature classes ^[3].

The trans self-identification item behaved like the bisexual and trans acceptance items. On the prospect of identifying with a different gender, 38.7% of the experimental group answered negatively and 35.5% neutrally ^[12], or roughly 12 and 11 of 31 pupils ^[21]. "In this variable, we likewise found no statistically significant differences between the groups," the researchers said ^[13].

The authors want curricula reviewed so that content on sexual diversity and gender identity appears from the earliest stages of school ^[16]. "This is necessary not only to raise awareness of different realities, but also to prevent bullying and violence while fostering safe school environments," they said ^[15]. They also call the work an initial study across two schools whose results should be read with caution ^[14].

I think that caution is the right weight. The Elche pupils who did this reading answered more openly on two items after a year ^[1][8], and the design as described cannot yet attribute that difference to the teaching.