The proportion of Dutch secondary-school boys expressing a positive attitude towards homosexuality has dropped from 40% in 2021 to 22% in 2025, according to the national HBSC survey conducted by Utrecht University and the Trimbos Institute and published on 21 September 2026. Among girls, the figure declined from 78% to 51% during the same four-year period.
Researchers describe the findings as a break from decades of increasing acceptance. They cautiously point to a wider public debate in which sexual diversity has increasingly been questioned by political figures, alongside the growing reach of online manosphere content. The survey forms part of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study carried out across almost all European countries, allowing the Dutch findings to be considered alongside international data in the full report.
The numbers
HBSC has surveyed pupils in the Netherlands every four years since 2001, supported by funding from the health ministry, making the 2025 survey its seventh wave. It includes pupils in group 8 of primary school and secondary-school students aged 12 to 16. Because the study is nationally representative, researchers highlight the scale of the change as particularly significant.
- Boys reporting a positive attitude towards homosexuality: 40% in 2021, falling to 22% in 2025.
- Girls: 78% in 2021, declining to 51% in 2025.
- Pupils who believe homosexual or lesbian classmates can be open about their sexuality at school: 60%, falling to 45%.
- Girls reporting emotional problems: 29% in 2017, rising to 43% in 2025; behavioural problems increased from 12% to 21%.
Beyond attitudes towards homosexuality, the proportion of secondary-school pupils who say they enjoy school has continued to decline after more than a decade of deterioration. Reported bullying also increased between 2017 and 2025. Pressure from schoolwork remained high and broadly unchanged from 2021, with more than half of girls and around one-third of boys reporting substantial pressure.
Explanations on the table
Gonneke Stevens, principal investigator of the study and professor of youth wellbeing at Utrecht University, said the decline has emerged during a period in which sexual diversity has increasingly been questioned by prominent people in society, including politicians.
NOS has reported controversy surrounding Lentekriebels, a sexuality-education programme for primary schools. A conservative Christian foundation associated the programme with paedophilia through claims that were later subject to a court-ordered rectification. By that point, however, around half of Dutch primary schools had reportedly experienced parental resistance, while rainbow flags and Purple Friday activities had also become increasingly contested.
Stevens additionally points to the manosphere — an online network of influencers, including personalities such as Andrew Tate, associated with aggressive ideas about masculinity and discriminatory messaging concerning women and gay people — as a possible amplifier.
However, she stresses that further research is necessary before a causal relationship can be established. The available findings show that exposure to such views increased during the same period in which attitudes towards homosexuality became less positive, but they do not establish that one directly caused the other.
A wider wellbeing picture
The reversal in attitudes appears within a broader picture of stagnating youth wellbeing. The 2022 HBSC findings had already raised concerns about girls’ mental health. Four years later, Stevens reports that there has been no recovery, with girls in 2025 performing worse than in 2017 across all eight mental-health indicators measured.
All-day TikTok use was reported by 45% of secondary-school girls and 33% of boys. Researchers associate heavy use with reduced time available for schoolwork and potentially greater school-related stress.
Not every indicator has worsened. Daily fruit consumption among primary-school pupils increased from 42% to 54%, reaching its highest level since the survey began in 2001. Primary-school boys also reported spending fewer hours gaming each week than they did in 2021.
Responses and limits
Marie Ricardo, director of COC, the Dutch LGBTI rights organisation, described the findings as a frightening development and called on social-media platforms to take greater responsibility for manosphere content distributed through their services. She also stressed the importance of younger generations to maintaining a society in which people are free to be themselves.
DutchNews has highlighted the wider environment faced by advocates, noting that children’s author Pim Lammers went into hiding in 2023 after receiving death threats following a campaign by the radical Catholic organisation Civitas Christiana.
The limitations of the survey are also important when interpreting the results. The research is cross-sectional and based on self-reported responses, meaning it compares stated attitudes at different points in time rather than tracking the same individual pupils over several years. It therefore cannot establish that any single factor caused the decline.
The next HBSC survey wave is expected in 2029. Researchers say the intervening period should be used to better understand the mechanisms behind these changes, rather than focusing only on their scale.
