Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Department

Music and Dance

First Advisor

Amanda Greenbacker-Mitchell

Abstract

This study utilized a qualitative meta-analysis approach to determine commonalities in students who have experienced peer victimization due to their participation in a performing arts program. Accounts of peer victimization of performing arts students were gathered across multiple qualitative and mixed methods studies. These accounts were systematically analyzed, data were assigned codes, and sorted into metacategories. From those metacategories, common themes were created, including: 1) The performing arts are not cool, 2) The performing arts are for women, 3) The performing arts are gay, 4) Black artists receive backlash. The meta-analysis identified commonalities within these findings, including: peers attempting to demonstrate superiority, victimized students receiving verbal mockery from peers, male performers experiencing victimization more than their female counterparts, male dance students feeling as though they cannot express themselves authentically, and Black students’ reports of being silenced and ostracized in performing arts spaces. These commonalities suggest performing arts victimization experiences stem from ideologies of stigmatization or discrimination. Implications from these findings suggest perpetrators may not fully understand why individuals partake in the performing arts, and performing arts educators require more knowledge on successful intervention and support strategies. Further suggestions for research include gaining understandings of perpetrators motives and broadening demographics of victimized students based on race, gender, and sexuality.

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