Sexual Orientation Beliefs and Identity Development: A Person-Centered Analysis among Sexual Minorities

ABSTRACT

We conducted person-centered analysis of sexual orientation beliefs among sexual minorities to explore potential relationships between these beliefs and sexual orientation, developmental milestones, race and ethnicity, and attitudes about sexual orientation. We recruited participants (N = 416) via Amazon Mechanical Turk who completed measures of beliefs about sexual orientation and attitudes about their own sexuality, as well as assessments of mental health and age of sexual identity development milestones. We conducted a latent profile analysis and found three distinct sexual orientation belief profiles, similar to those previously observed in predominantly straight samples. We found that sexual orientation and race-ethnicity predicted belief profile membership, with the latter exhibiting the most substantial effect. Of the four identity developmental milestones tested, only the age of first same-sex attraction predicted belief profile membership. Across profiles, members differed significantly in their mean endorsement of both positive and negative attitudes regarding sexual orientation and psychological distress. Thus, the current research suggests that sexual orientation beliefs are powerful constructs in the lives of sexual minorities, with relationships to sexual orientation, other social identities, and mental health.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Katharine H. Zeiders, Joe Miles, and Kirsten Gonzalez for their feedback and consultation on an earlier draft.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a 2019 Dissertation Research Grant from the American Psychological Association and a Student/Faculty Research Award from The Graduate School, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.