Leung Enoch
Department of Educational & Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Front Psychol. 2021 Apr 23;12:654946. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.654946. eCollection 2021.
For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, identity development is one of the most critical developmental task. LGBTQ youth are shown to be at risk for a variety of risk factors including depression and suicidal ideation and attempts due to how their identities are appraised in heteronormative societies. However, most LGBTQ educational psychology research have highlighted protective factors that are primarily relevant to support LGBTQ white-youth. One of the major developmental theories, Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, has identified adolescence as the period where identity development occurs. However, through an intersectional lens, identity development appears to encompass more than adolescence but also emerging adulthood, a developmental stage not accounted for by Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. The primary goal of this study is to seek to understand and question Erikson's stages of psychosocial development through an intersectional lens of an autoethnography of my LGBTQ experiences. An autoethnographic approach [diary entries ( = 9), conversations ( = 12), interview ( = 1), social media websites and blogs ( = 2), and drawing ( = 1)] is used to understand my LGBTQ-person of color (POC) experiences of "coming out" or self-disclosure during my adolescence through emerging adulthood. Data was collected on April 2020 and spanned from 2006 through 2020 to account for the developmental period of adolescence and emerging adulthood (ages 13 through 27). Thematic analysis revealed four themes across the two developmental periods: (1) confusion and conflict between my gay and ethnic identity as a closeted adolescent, (2) my first "coming out" as a gay adolescent and "it got better," (3) frustration arising from the internal conflict between my gay and POC identity as an emerging adult, and (4) frustration arising from external experiences with the flaws of LGBTQ community inclusivity. Results reflected a continuous theme of identity exploration and struggle through both adolescence and emerging adulthood, highlighting the need for future research to replicate similar experiences from other intersectional individuals during emerging adulthood stage, a developmental stage that is considered in between Erikson's adolescent and young adulthood developmental stage.
对于女同性恋、男同性恋、双性恋、跨性别及酷儿（LGBTQ）青年而言，身份认同发展是最为关键的发展任务之一。研究表明，LGBTQ青年面临着多种风险因素，包括抑郁、自杀念头及自杀企图，这是由于他们的身份在异性恋规范社会中所遭受的评价方式所致。然而，大多数LGBTQ教育心理学研究都强调了主要与支持LGBTQ白人青年相关的保护因素。主要发展理论之一，埃里克森的社会心理发展阶段理论，将青春期确定为身份认同发展的时期。然而，从交叉视角来看，身份认同发展似乎不仅涵盖青春期，还包括成年初显期，这是埃里克森社会心理发展阶段理论未涉及的一个发展阶段。本研究的主要目标是试图通过对我LGBTQ经历的自我民族志交叉视角来理解并质疑埃里克森的社会心理发展阶段理论。采用自我民族志方法[日记条目（=9）、对话（=12）、访谈（=1）、社交媒体网站和博客（=2）以及绘画（=1）]来了解我作为有色人种LGBTQ群体在从青春期到成年初显期“出柜”或自我披露的经历。数据于2020年4月收集，时间跨度从2006年至2020年，以涵盖青春期和成年初显期（13岁至27岁）的发展阶段。主题分析揭示了两个发展阶段的四个主题：（1）作为 closeted青少年时，我的同性恋身份与种族身份之间的困惑和冲突；（2）我作为同性恋青少年的首次“出柜”以及“情况好转”；（3）作为成年初显期个体，因我的同性恋身份与有色人种身份之间的内部冲突而产生的挫败感；（4）因LGBTQ社区包容性缺陷的外部经历而产生的挫败感。结果反映出在青春期和成年初显期身份认同探索与挣扎的持续主题，凸显了未来研究有必要在成年初显期阶段（这是埃里克森青少年和青年成年发展阶段之间的一个发展阶段）复制其他交叉个体的类似经历。
