Demographic and social factors impacting coming out as a sexual minority among Generation-Z teenage boys

Moskowitz, D. A., Rendina, H. J., Alvarado Avila, A., & Mustanski, B. (2021). Demographic and social factors impacting coming out as a sexual minority among Generation-Z teenage boys. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, Apr 2021. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000484

Teenagers have shown a 60% increase in identifying as gay, bisexual, queer/questioning, and pansexual (GBQP) since 2005. Although studies in the early 2000s have measured the prevalence of GBQP identities across adult populations and over time, the correlates of “coming out” as GBQP are less understood among Generation-Z teenagers (i.e., those born after 1997). We sampled 1,194 GBQP male (assigned-at-birth) teenagers aged 13–18 as part of an online HIV prevention study. Demographic (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, location, sexual identity) and social factors (e.g., school-based HIV education; religiousness; internalized stigma; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender victimization) were surveyed and entered into logistic regression models predicting outness to a female and/or male parental figure, as well as general others. Nearly two thirds were out to a female parental figure; nearly half were out to a male parental figure. We created three multivariable models predicting outness to general others, outness to a female parental figure, and outness to a male parental figure. Statistically significant correlates consistent across the models predicted greater outness for GBQP White teenagers relative to Black and Asian teenagers, gay-identified teenagers relative to bisexual and questioning/unsure teenagers, and GBQP teenagers reporting more experiences of victimization relative to less. Correlates that predicted reduced outness include identifying as religious, attending religious services, and reporting higher internalized sexual minority stigma. We concluded that outness among Generation-Z teenagers varied by sociocultural factors, prompting some teens to move across coming-out milestones more quickly. Most important for mental health, the findings substantiate that victimization toward out-teenagers has not relented and remains an area of concern.

Public Significance Statement: This study identified rates of outness to parental caregivers and to others among a large group of Generation-Z teenagers, ages 13–18. The findings highlight the need for greater attention for teens having difficulty reconciling their sexual identities and who may be being victimized by peers. They also show both the positive and negative impact of spirituality and religiosity on the coming-out process.

Keywords: coming out, teenagers, men who have sex with men, demographic differences

Discussion In this article, we conducted a set of analyses among a diverse nationwide sample of GBQP, Generation-Z teenagers to understand sociodemographic, geographic, and individual factors associated with outness construed both broadly and with parents. Our goal was also to suggest the key factors that might help or hinder movement from milestones like self-realization of sexual identity to disclosure. Overall, many in the sample were out to most or all people in their lives, with nearly two thirds being out to a female parental figure and nearly half being out to a male parental figure. When examining these three outness variables, several consistent factors emerged as associated with being out. In terms of sociodemographic factors, Black and Asian GBQP teenagers and those of other non-Latino race were less likely to be out than White teens to parents, upholding those previous studies from the 2000s (Grov et al., 2006; Rosario et al., 2004). Gay-identified teenagers were more likely to be out than those who identified as bisexual or were unsure of their identities; to our surprise, no differences by age group were identified. We found that religiosity remains an important factor associated with outness—those who identified as religious had two to three times the odds of not being out compared to those of any other religious or spiritual identity, although some of these findings diminished or lacked significance within multivariable analyses. Independent of this effect, people who attended religious services more frequently had significantly lower levels of outness, broadly construed, but did not differ in terms of outness to either parent in multivariable analyses. Finally, we found that lower levels of internalized sexual minority stigma and more experiences of sexual minority victimization were associated with greater outness across the three indicators. The levels of outness in this sample were higher relative to some nationwide research with adults (Pew, 2013). For example, Pew data from 2013 among 1,197 sexual minority adults showed 56% were out to a female parent figure and 39% were out to a male parent figure, which are lower than the 66% and 49%, respectively, within the present sample. This is not surprising, as parents’ attitudes toward having a sexual minority child are continuously improving. As of 2015, 57% of parents reported they would not be upset, relative to 36% in 2004, and 23% in 2000 (Gao, 2015). This trend has likely also contributed to generational cohorts of teens coming out at earlier ages (Dunlap, 2016). Surprisingly, this was not a finding we could replicate with our sample, as 13- to 14-year-olds were just as likely to be out as 17- to 18-year-olds. The lack of findings could be attributable to social acceptability reaching high enough peaks that age of coming out has essentially decreased to around the onset of puberty. Alternatively, the null age findings could be an artifact of the sample being recruited for a larger-scale online HIV prevention study. According to the milestones framework, acknowledgment of same-sex attraction and self-realization of a sexual minority identity precede coming out; enactment of same-sex behavior usually predates coming out too (Floyd & Stein, 2002). This study required participants to report some degree of sexual behavioral enactment to be eligible and thus were more likely to be further along on the milestones continuum. It is for this reason that future studies should continually measure outness by age to see if a floor effect has occurred or if the current timeline documented most recently by Bishop et al. (2020) is not generalizable to those under 18. Our findings regarding religiousness showed some similarities with previous research (Baiocco et al., 2016; Hoffarth & Bogaert, 2017; Winder, 2015) but also described a more complex relationship than that previously understood regarding spirituality. Granted, teenagers identifying as religious were less likely to report outness. They were also less likely to be generally out to people if they reported greater frequency in religious attendance. However, teens who reported being religious in tandem with being spiritual were more likely to come out, even within the adjusted models. In fact, such teens showed similar rates of outness to teens who reported being neither religious nor spiritual. It was previously assumed that religiousness was an indivisible individual difference that kept LGBTQ adolescents/GBQP teens from reaching higher disclosure milestones. Our findings suggest that pockets of religious teenagers may be accessing their spirituality to find strength to come out. Alternatively, teenagers who report being only religious may be referencing their family’s religiousness, which may be why they are less likely to be out. Regardless, our findings regarding religiousness suggest future study into spirituality specifically, as almost 39% of our sample endorsed being spiritual. Additional findings from our study reinforce the impact of internalized sexual minority stigma and experiences of sexual minority victimization on outness. While internalized stigma tended to keep the teenage participants in the closet, victimization was associated with their coming out. The precise directionality of these findings remains unclear though, especially regarding victimization. For example, it is unknown whether teens who are victimized tend to come out more as a resiliency strategy or as a resistance approach to stigma (Asakura & Craig, 2014) or whether those who come out then become targets of victimization. It is also unknown whether gender (a)typicality plays a moderating effect over these constructs. Gender atypicality is associated with victimization among those in adolescence and early adulthood (Toomey et al., 2012, 2014). While our data showed no differences between identifying as male versus an alternative identity (e.g., nonbinary, transgender) regarding reaching the coming-out milestone, we did not delve into the social role of gender expression, which might better elucidate the relationship. Coming out may be less a choice for teens who self-define along the gender continuum (Russell et al., 2014); alternatively, sexual orientation disclosure may be too difficult for teens who are stereotypically and heteronormatively masculine acting. Regardless, enduring external factors like victimization and developing internal attitudes like internalized stigma are psychologically deleterious (Greene et al., 2014). Finding ways for those with internalized stigma to reconcile their cognitive dissonance may improve rates of teenage sexual orientation disclosure. Most important, linking those being victimized—especially those just coming out of the closet—with helpful allies may improve the coming-out experience and reduce physical or psychological distress (Ybarra et al., 2014). Our findings were some of the first to incorporate outness data on gender identities other than “male” (for individuals assigned male at birth), as well as sexual orientations other than lesbian, gay, or bisexual (i.e., pansexual, queer). As mentioned, we found no significant differences between teenagers identifying as transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and those identifying as male, and this finding should be taken with qualification. We had a relatively small sample of such teenagers, and findings must be replicated with a larger sample. For in reviewing the odds ratios and their confidence intervals, it is likely that with more data, nonmale identified teens would reach statistical significance and trend toward reporting higher rates of coming out relative to male-identified teenagers. We found significant differences between all three categories of sexual identities (i.e., bisexual, pansexual/queer, and questioning/unsure) relative to those self-identifying as gay regarding general outness. These findings suggest teens may feel uncomfortable or uncertain about discussing their sexuality because their sexual identity may be unknown by older generations. Among their own peers, they may not disclose their identity because it might be misunderstood or they might feel stigmatized or be victimized (Kosciw et al., 2015) if they came out. These reasons have certainly been found for reductions in bi outness for other samples (Israel, 2018; Schrimshaw et al., 2018). Yet, while there may be overlap in our general outness findings, it may not be appropriate to talk about nonmonosexual identities as combinable. Bisexuals often are grouped demographically with pansexual, queer, and “other” identities (e.g., demisexual) in research, but our findings show no differences between outness to parents for pansexual and queer teenagers when compared with gay teenagers, but bisexual teens reported significantly reduced outness to parents relative to their gay counterparts. Such findings would suggest that pansexual- and queer-identifying teenagers, if anything, could be grouped with gay-identified teenagers regarding reaching disclosure milestones (when such groupings are required). While it may be convenient to group pansexual, queer, and bisexual individuals into a group for research purposes (commonly known as a “biþ” group; Davila et al., 2019; Rahman et al., 2019), our study suggests that to be a mistake, given they report rates of disclosures closer to gay individuals. Nonmonosexual identities other than bisexual are being readily adopted by teenagers. Our own sample showed about 8% self-identifying outside of gay or bisexual. Considering research is literally just starting to count and account for these identities, treatment of such individuals as being distinct from traditional sexual orientations should become increasingly standard.