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Happiness and Sexual Minority Status

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Abstract

We used logistic regression on nationally representative data (General Social Survey, N = 10,668 and N = 6680) to examine how sexual minority status related to happiness. We considered two central dimensions of sexual minority status—sexual behavior and sexual identity. We distinguished between same-sex, both-sex, and different-sex-oriented participants. Because individuals transition between sexual behavior categories over the life course (e.g., from both-sex partners to only same-sex partners) and changes in sexual minority status have theoretical associations with well-being, we also tested the associations of transitions with happiness. Results showed that identifying as bisexual, gay, or lesbian, having both male and female partners since age 18, or transitioning to only different-sex partners was negatively related to happiness. Those with only same-sex partners since age 18 or in the past 5 years had similar levels of happiness as those with only different-sex partners since age 18. Additional tests showed that the majority of these happiness differences became non-significant when economic and social resources were included, indicating that the lower happiness was a product of structural and societal forces. Our findings clearly and robustly underscored the importance of taking a multi-faceted approach to understanding sexuality and well-being, demonstrating that not all sexual minority groups experience disadvantaged happiness. Our study calls for more attention to positive aspects of well-being such as happiness in examinations of sexual minorities and suggests that positive psychology and other happiness subfields should consider the role of sexual minority status in sha** happiness.

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Notes

  1. We use the shorthand “both-sex orientation” to refer to participants who identify as bisexual and/or participants with sexual partners of both the same-sex and the different-sex as themselves (i.e., both male and female partners). Similarly, “different-sex orientation” refers to participants who identify as heterosexual and/or have only different-sex partners, and “same-sex orientation” refers to participants who identify as gay or lesbian and/or have only same-sex partners.

  2. Throughout the article, “partners” refers to one or more partner. Thus, it should be read as neither exclusively singular nor exclusively plural.

  3. We only considered changes in sexual behavior categories because the GSS did not have sufficient data on changes in sexual identity categories.

  4. By comparison, for the personal income question, 11.6 % of participants refused to answer or responded with “don’t know.”

  5. These analyses are available from the authors upon request.

  6. Most participants with lifelong different-sex partners or who transitioned to only different-sex partners identified as heterosexual; however, in line with past studies (Xu, Sternberg, & Markowitz, 2010a; Xu et al., 2010b), a sizeable percentage of those with lifelong same-sex partners and lifelong both-sex partners (37 and 46 %, respectively) also identified as heterosexuals. Almost half of those with lifelong both-sex partners identified as bisexual. More information on why we did not consider identity and behavior together is in the Limitations section.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by Grant R03HD078754 (Principal Investigators Corinne Reczek and Hui Liu) from the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Support for this project was also provided by the Ohio State University Institute for Population Research through a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health, P2CHD058484. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development or the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, HHB 460, 1720 2nd Ave South, Birmingham, AL, 35294, USA

    Mieke Beth Thomeer

  2. Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Corinne Reczek

  3. Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Corinne Reczek

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  1. Mieke Beth Thomeer
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Correspondence to Mieke Beth Thomeer.

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Thomeer, M.B., Reczek, C. Happiness and Sexual Minority Status. Arch Sex Behav 45, 1745–1758 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0737-z

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