Processes of Sexual Orientation Questioning among Heterosexual Women

Abstract

Because very little is known about heterosexual identity development, this study assesses and describes sexual orientation questioning processes of heterosexual-identified women and offers a comparison of these processes with those employed by their sexual-minority counterparts. Participants included 333 female college students (ages 18–23; M = 19.2): 228 participants primarily identified as “exclusively straight/heterosexual,” and 105 participants indicated a sexual-minority identity. Sixty-seven percent of exclusively heterosexual respondents (n = 154) indicated having thought about or questioned their sexual orientation. The processes by which heterosexual participants described questioning their sexual orientation were coded for the presence of five emergent categories using an inductive thematic coding methodology. These five categories included unelaborated questioning (19%), other-sex experiences (16%), exposure to sexual minorities (26%), assessment of same-sex attraction (48%), and evaluations of same-sex behavior (26%). Several unifying and differentiating themes emerged between sexual orientation groups. Results from this study suggest that contemporary young women's heterosexuality is not necessarily an unexamined identity; indeed, the large majority of young women in this sample were deliberately identifying as heterosexual after contemplating alternative possibilities.

Notes

Note. “Processes of questioning” categories were coded individually as present or absent; “unelaborated” was necessarily mutually exclusive from the other four categories.

Note. Responses for feminine ideology and Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Knowledge and Attitudes Scale for Heterosexuals (LGB–KASH) subscales ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Responses for frequency of other-sex and same-sex sexual behavior ranged from 1 (never) to 5 (ten or more times), and responses for number of other-sex and same-sex partners ranged from 1 (none) to 5 (ten or more people). Responses for sexual identity subscales ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). AFIS = Adolescent Femininity Ideology Scale; LGB = lesbian, gay, or bisexual; MoSEIC = Measure of Sexual Identity Exploration and Commitment.

*p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.