Department of Sociology and Social Work, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Heritage Hall 460-S, 1401 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2012 Feb;41(2):167-78. doi: 10.1007/s10964-011-9653-7. Epub 2011 Mar 16.
Evidence suggests that lesbian and gay young adults use substances more frequently than their heterosexual peers. Based on the life course perspective, we argue that this difference may be due to the unavailability of marriage as a turning point in the lives of lesbian/gay young adults. We use data from a nationally representative sample of youth (N = 13,581, 52.4% female, 68.6% white, ages 18-26) to examine sexual orientation differences in substance use and explore whether these differences vary by romantic partnership formation in young adulthood. We find that the formation of more serious partnerships (e.g., cohabitation, marriage) is associated with less frequent substance use among heterosexual young adults, though this pattern does not hold for lesbian and gay young adults. We conclude that the partnership options available to lesbians and gay men do not provide the same health-protective benefits that marriage does for heterosexuals.
有证据表明，同性恋青年成年人比异性恋同龄人更频繁地使用物质。基于生命历程的观点，我们认为这种差异可能是由于同性恋青年成年人的生活中没有婚姻这个转折点。我们使用了来自全国代表性青年样本的数据（N=13581，女性占 52.4%，白人占 68.6%，年龄在 18-26 岁之间），来研究物质使用方面的性取向差异，并探讨这些差异是否因青年成年人中浪漫伴侣关系的形成而有所不同。我们发现，更严肃的伴侣关系（例如，同居、婚姻）的形成与异性恋青年成年人中较少的物质使用有关，尽管这种模式不适用于同性恋青年成年人。我们得出结论，女同性恋者和男同性恋者可获得的伴侣选择并不像婚姻对异性恋者那样提供同样的健康保护益处。
