Context and the psychological well-being of sexual minority women in young adulthood

Citation

Joyner, Kara; Prince, Barbara F.; & Manning, Wendy (2018). Context and the psychological well-being of sexual minority women in young adulthood. Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America. Denver, CO.

Abstract

Using Wave IV data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we assess how sexual orientation identity is associated with psychological well-being and perceived discrimination. Focusing on female respondents who do not identify as "100% heterosexual (straight)," we find that bisexual women not only report the highest levels of depressive symptoms and stress, but they are also most likely to feel they have been treated with disrespect. We find that bisexual women, but not other groups of sexual minority women, are uniquely responsive to their neighborhood context. Specifically, their levels of psychological well-being and their likelihood of being disrespected decrease as the concentration of same-sex couples in their census tract increases. Our next step is to evaluate how the outcomes of sexual minority women vary using state-level policy variables that will be available to users of Add Health soon.

URL

https://paa.confex.com/paa/2018/webprogrampreliminary/Paper23626.html

Keyword(s)

sexual minorities sexual orientation women neighborhood context well-being

Reference Type

Conference proceeding

Book Title

Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America

Series Title

Contextual influences on health

Author(s)

Joyner, Kara
Prince, Barbara F.
Manning, Wendy

Year Published

2018

City of Publication

Denver, CO

Reference ID

8383