2-150 - Emerging Sexual Identity Labels: What can Youth Tell us and Where do we go from Here?

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

While a majority of youth still identify using terms such as gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual, many are increasingly likely to describe themselves with identity labels such as queer, pansexual or asexual. While little systematic research has documented these emergent identity labels, youth feel strongly about the identities they use to describe themselves, and as researchers, we have a responsibility to represent youth as they see themselves. Especially for researchers engaged in quantitative research on sexual minority youth, the growing diversity of identities presents challenges regarding how to incorporate these identities into research, particularly research on broader health and wellbeing disparities. The purpose of this symposium is to take a developmental perspective to better understand meanings of these identities. The first paper utilizes data from a large-scale study and documents vast diversity in identities among sexual and gender minority adolescents. The second paper explores how retrospective reports of sexual developmental milestones differ between sexual minority youth with mainstream and emergent identities. The third paper provides longitudinal information on how youth’s identity labels have changed over time, and how they relate to individual outcomes. Finally, the fourth presents qualitative work with Sexual Configurations Theory as a theoretical framework for understanding and assessing sexual minority identities. Together, these four papers build on each other to provide some of the first developmental understandings of the emerging diversity in sexual minority labels, and provide new methodological and theoretical approaches for addressing this key issue in sexual minority research.

Sub Unit

• Sex, Gender

Chairs

• Amanda M Pollitt, University of Texas at Austin

• Alexa Martin-Storey, Université de Sherbrooke

Individual Presentations

• Evidence of Diverse Identities in a Large National Sample of Sexual and Gender Minority Youth - Presenting Author: Ryan J Watson, University of Connecticut; Non-Presenting Author: Christopher W. Wheldon, National Cancer Institute; Non-Presenting Author: Rebecca M. Puhl, University of Connecticut

• What’s in a Name?: Sexual Identity Development Milestones Across Lesbian/Gay, Bisexual, and Emergent Sexual Identities - Presenting Author: Meg D. Bishop, University of Texas at Austin; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica N. Fish, University of Maryland College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Stephen T. Russell, University of Texas at Austin

• Exploring LGBTQ Youth Identities: Sexual Identity Terms Endorsed by Youth Currently and Over Time - Presenting Author: Caitlin Clark, GLSEN; Non-Presenting Author: Joseph Kosciw, GLSEN

• Capturing Diverse Sexual Identities via Sexual Configurations Theory - Presenting Author: Will J. Beischel, University of Michian; Non-Presenting Author: Zach C. Schudson, University of Michigan; Non-Presenting Author: Sari van Anders, Queens University