Department of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, PO Box 6326, Morgantown, WV, 25606, USA.
Arch Sex Behav. 2018 May;47(4):1085-1094. doi: 10.1007/s10508-017-0979-4. Epub 2017 Mar 29.
Research has shown that cross-sectional estimates of sexual identities overlook fluidity in those identities. Research has also shown that social factors, such as competing identities, can influence sexual identity fluidity. We contributed to this literature in two ways. First, we utilized a representative panel of US adults (N = 1034) surveyed in 2010, 2012, and 2014 by the General Social Survey. The addition of a third observation allowed us to examine more complexity in sexual identity fluidity. We found that 2.40% of US adults reported at least one change in sexual identity across the 4 years, with 1.59% reporting one change and 0.81% reporting two changes. Our second contribution came from examining the role of religion, as past research has suggested that religion can destabilize and prolong sexual identity development. We found that lesbian or gay individuals (N = 17), bisexuals (N = 15), and females (N = 585) showed more sexual identity fluidity compared to heterosexuals (N = 1003) and males (N = 450), respectively. Marital status, age, race, and education did not have significant associations with sexual identity fluidity. Regarding the role of religion, we found that participants identifying as more religious in Wave 1 showed more fluidity in sexual identity across later observations. Further analysis showed that higher levels of religiosity make it more likely that lesbian or gay individuals will be fluid in sexual identity, but this is not the case for heterosexual individuals. This finding reinforces past qualitative research that has suggested that religion can extend or complicate sexual minorities' identity development.
研究表明，对性身份的横断面估计忽略了这些身份的流动性。研究还表明，社会因素，如竞争身份，会影响性身份的流动性。我们通过两种方式为这一文献做出了贡献。首先，我们利用了美国成年人的代表性小组，他们在 2010 年、2012 年和 2014 年通过一般社会调查进行了调查。增加了第三次观察，使我们能够更复杂地研究性身份的流动性。我们发现，2.40%的美国成年人在这 4 年内至少报告了一次性身份的变化，其中 1.59%报告了一次变化，0.81%报告了两次变化。我们的第二个贡献来自于研究宗教的作用，因为过去的研究表明宗教会破坏和延长性身份的发展。我们发现，与异性恋者（N=1003）和男性（N=450）相比，女同性恋者或男同性恋者（N=17）、双性恋者（N=15）和女性（N=585）表现出更多的性身份流动性。婚姻状况、年龄、种族和教育与性身份的流动性没有显著关联。关于宗教的作用，我们发现，在第 1 波中自我认同为更虔诚的参与者在后来的观察中表现出更多的性身份流动性。进一步的分析表明，更高的宗教信仰度使女同性恋或男同性恋者更有可能在性身份上保持流动性，但这对异性恋者则不然。这一发现强化了过去的定性研究，即宗教可以延长或使性少数群体的身份发展复杂化。
