The Timing of Men's and Women's Same-sex Sexual Behavior and Different-sex Marital Outcomes

• In Event: 1480 - Section on Sociology of Sexualities Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01. Doing Sexuality

Abstract

Recent research finds that individuals who report experiencing any of the dimensions of same-sex sexuality, including same-sex desire/attraction, behavior, and/or identity, are at a greater risk of divorce from a different-sex spouse and are more likely to divorce at shorter marital durations. However, this research uses cross-sectional data and does not distinguish between same-sex sexuality that emerges before, during, or after marriage. To address this limitation, we use data from the 2011-2015 National Survey of Family Growth to look specifically at the timing of first same-sex sexual behavior in relation to the risk of divorce among the once-married, and the duration of marriage among the once-married, once-divorced. Throughout, we pay particular attention to whether these associations differ for women and men. Multivariate Cox regression results indicate that first same-sex sexual behavior is associated with an increased risk of divorce and shorter marital duration, but only for women and regardless of whether the behavior was initiated before or during marriage. Same-sex sexual behavior appears to have no net effect on the risk of divorce among once-married men or on marital duration for once-married, once-divorced men. We discuss the results in relation to the existing research, the limitations of our research, and directions for future research.

Authors

• Aaron Michael Hoy, Syracuse University

• Andrew S. London, Syracuse University