ABSTRACT
Although peer crowd affiliations have been studied among emerging adults in college, this work has yet to focus in on LGBT-identifying students. Accordingly, the current study a) surveyed the peer crowd landscape using a sample of 234 LGBT students (Mage = 19.89, SD = 1.55; 70.51% female, 18.38% male, 11.11% other) at a small, private, liberal arts college in Southern California, and b) explored the relationships between self-reported peer crowd affiliations and LGBT students’ adjustment (i.e., loneliness, belongingness, and academic-, alcohol-, drug-, and sex-risk behaviors). Results point to the existence of four underlying peer crowd dimensions among LGBT students: protester, nonvocal, social, and athletic. Furthermore, affiliation with these peer crowds was found to relate to students’ self-reported loneliness and academic-, drug-, and sex-risk behaviors.
Notes
1. From this point forward, for the sake of brevity, we will refer to LGBTQIA+ as LGBT.
2. Data from 6 heterosexual-identifying people were included in our final sample for 2 reasons. First, these individuals self-reported substantially identifying with the LGBT peer crowds on campus. In some cases, these participants indicated that they identified with an LGBT crowd to a maximal extent (i.e., they marked 5 on the 5-point peer crowd affiliation response scale). Second, it is possible that these participants self-identified as heterosexual because they are questioning their sexuality and were not sure how to self-identify, or were uncomfortable doing so.
3. Please see Appendix A for explanations of all crowd affiliation items.
4. Redacted for purposes of participant anonymity (single words replaced with “XX”).