Heterosexist microaggressions, student academic experience and perception of campus climate: Findings from an Italian higher education context

we controlled all the effects for gender identity, age, academic class rank, and specialized aca- demic program were also included in the study as control variables. Materials and methods Participants and procedure Data were collected in 2018 through an anonymous web-based survey of students from a large university of Southern Italy. The study was designed to conform to the principles of the Decla- ration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects and was approved by the University Institutional Review Board. Students were invited to complete the survey by faculty engaged in the institutional committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclu- sion, who were contacted by staff working at the Anti-discrimination division of the University Service Center (SInAPSi–Center for Active and Participated Inclusion of Students). They were asked to share the survey with any other students they knew at the same university, a strategy that led to a snowball sampling recruitment procedure. Privacy was guaranteed to participants in accordance with Italian laws 196/2003 and 101/2018. Informed consent was obtained prior to beginning data collection. The participation was voluntary, and participants could withdraw at any time without any adverse consequence. No survey questions were mandatory. Eighteen surveys were excluded from analysis due to missing data on all key study variables. The final sample comprised 471 Italian students (65% female). Participants were 18 to 33 years

old (M = 22.93, SD = 3.11). They were enrolled in both humanistic (56%) and scientific (44%) academic programs. No participant self-identified as transgender or transsexual. Thirty-eight (8.1%) students self-identified as non-heterosexual: 21 students self-identified as bisexual (17 females and 4 males), 6 as gay, 6 as lesbian; 5 female students self-identified as pansexual and questioning (3 and 2, respectively). Due to the limited number of participants in each sexual orientation category, we created a dummy variable (i.e., heterosexual vs. non-heterosexual) to use in the study’s analyses. Descriptive statistics of sample characteristics are reported in Table 1. Measures Sociodemographic characteristics and controls. Sociodemographic variables included sex assigned at birth (male, female, intersex), actual perceived gender (man, woman, and other with specification required), sexual orientation (lesbian, gay, bisexual, asexual, and other with Table 1. Sample characteristics. Characteristics Total (N = 471) N (%) or M (SD) Heterosexuals (n = 433) N (%) or M (SD) Non-heterosexuals (n = 38) N (%) or M (SD) Gender Female 307 (65.2) 279 (64.4) 28 (73.7) Male 164 (34.8) 154 (35.6) 10 (26.3) Age 22.82 (2.67) 22.82 (2.63) 22.82 (3.14) Class rank Freshman year 67 (14.3) 60 (13.9) 7 (18.4) Other 404 (85.7) 373 (86.1) 31 (81.6) Specialized academic program Scientific 205 (43.5) 193 (44.6) 12 (31.6) Humanistic 266 (56.5) 240 (55.4) 26 (68.4) M = mean; SD = standard deviation. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231580.t001 PLOS ONE

Heterosexist microaggressions and campus climate PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231580 April 16, 2020 6 / 16