The Social Development of Contingent Self-Worth in Sexual Minority Young Men: An Empirical Investigation of the “Best Little Boy in the World” Hypothesis

Abstract

Young sexual minority men might cope with early stigma by strongly investing in achievement-related success. Sexual minority men (n = 136) reported deriving their self-worth from academics (d = 0.33), appearance (d = 0.33), and competition (d = 0.35) more so than heterosexual men (n = 56). Length of early sexual orientation concealment predicted investment in these domains (β = 0.19, 0.22, 0.24) and an objective measure of stigma predicted the degree to which young sexual minority men sought self-worth through competition (β = 0.26). A nine-day experience sampling approach confirmed that investment in achievement-related domains exacts negative health consequences for young sexual minority men.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger for providing helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

Note. Group comparisons conducted with the following covariates: annual parental income, year in school, ethnicity (whether or not a participant indicated being White/Caucasian), and university admissions rate. Adjusted means reported.

^a n = 136. bn = 56.

*p < .05.

Note. n = 136.

^a Reference category is White/Caucasian. bCoded such that larger numbers indicate a lower admissions rate.

*p < .05.

^a Composite of the standardized sum of state-level policies and sum of attitudes toward policies affecting sexual minority individuals, calculated such that higher scores indicate more support for sexual minority individuals.

*p < .05.

Note. n = 136. CSW = contingent self-worth; dichotomous outcomes were coded so that 0 =did engage in the behavior today and 1 =did not engage in the behavior today; OR = odds ratio; CI = confidence interval.

*p < .05.