Outness and social–emotional adjustment among asexual and demisexual adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents who identify as asexual (i.e., do not experience sexual attraction) remain understudied despite a recent increase in studies carried out among asexual adults. The present study provides data on the frequency of asexual identities among adolescents with attention to diversity across the asexuality spectrum, including a focus on demisexual adolescents. We utilized a national sample of 17,112 LGBQA + adolescents aged 13–17—of which 773 (4.5%) identified as asexual and 105 (0.6%) identified as demisexual. We compared those identifying as asexual and those identifying as demisexual on outness and social–emotional adjustment. In addition, we tested differences between asexual adolescents and allosexual sexual minority youth (SMY) on their sexual identity outness and social–emotional adjustment, and whether the associations differed by sexual identity. We found that asexual adolescents were out to significantly fewer people and experienced fewer depressive symptoms than demisexual adolescents. Asexual adolescents reported lower outness, greater depressive symptoms, and lower self-esteem compared to allosexual SMY. Greater outness was associated with higher self-esteem across asexual and allosexual SMY. These findings suggest increasing identification as asexual among youth compared to previous generations and point to greater social–emotional adjustment challenges for asexual compared with allosexual SMY.

Keywords:

• Asexuality
• adolescence
• outness
• depression
• self-esteem
• LGBQA youth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse under Award Number K01DA047918. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Notes on contributors

Katelyn J. Pitcher

Katelyn Pitcher is a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on wellbeing and identity development in sexual minority adolescents, as well as intergroup relations and stereotype development in children.

Rhiannon L. Smith

Rhiannon L. Smith is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on friendships and other peer relationships in childhood and adolescence, and the impact of these relationships on emotional well-being.

Ryan J. Watson

Ryan Watson is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut. He is interested in the health and well-being of sexual and gender diverse youth and young adults.