Corey E. Flanders

Negative identity experiences of bisexual and other non-monosexual people: A qualitative report

ABSTRACT In this article, we report experiences that bisexual and other nonmonosexual people perceive as negative or threatening toward their sexual identity that may relate to mental health. A 28-day, daily diary study investigated whether participants encountered negative experiences related to their sexual identity. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, participants experiences were organized according to a social ecological model. Experiences were reported at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and social-structural levels, though most negative sexual identity experiences occurred at the interpersonal level. Implications for negative health outcomes research and the inclusion of bisexual-specific stressors in minority stress research are discussed.

Defining Bisexuality: Young Bisexual and Pansexual People's Voices

ABSTRACT Bisexuality is defined in a plethora of ways, including definitions based on behavior, attraction, or desire and may employ binary or nonbinary definitions. Research has not adequately addressed how young bisexual people themselves define bisexuality, whether those definitions change with social context, or whether bisexual people define bisexuality differently from pansexual people. The current study addresses these questions through an online, mixed-methods study. A total of 60 bisexual and pansexual participants aged ages 18 to 30 responded to closed- and open-ended questions regarding their definitions of bisexuality. Closed-ended responses were analyzed with a series of chi-square tests, while we conducted a summative content analysis on the open-ended responses. Results indicate that in general, bisexual and pansexual people define bisexuality similarly. Participants modified their definitions of bisexuality depending upon the social context. Implications for research are discussed.

Bisexual Health: A Daily Diary Analysis of Stress and Anxiety

The current study aimed to develop a more complete picture of the day-to-day experience of mental health for bisexual people, including the relationships between social interactions and mental health. Specifically, the relationships between the occurrence of microaggressions and positive and negative identity events and reports of stress and anxiety within individuals were observed. Feelings of self-esteem, positive and negative affect, social belonging, and sexual identity certainty and centrality were also investigated as between-subject factors. Positive identity events were negatively associated with reports of stress and anxiety, whereas negative identity events were positively associated with stress and microaggressions positively associated with anxiety.

“I’m Never Really My Full Self”: Young Bisexual Women's Perceptions of their Mental Health

Young bisexual women report worse mental health outcomes in comparison to young heterosexual and lesbian women. Although these mental health disparities have been documented consistently in recent research, few researchers have investigated how young bisexual women understand their mental health and perceived factors that influence mental health disparities within their communities. Understanding more about how young bisexual women perceive their mental health can help direct the development of interventions aimed at addressing these health disparities. This article addresses a qualitative community-based research project where 35 young bisexual women discussed their perceptions of their mental health, challenges and supports to their mental health, and suggestions for change. Analysis of the data indicates that young bisexual women perceive monosexism and biphobia as significant challenges to their mental health at the institutional, community, interpersonal, and intrapersonal level.

Under the Bisexual Umbrella: Diversity of Identity and Experience

I am pleased to introduce the special issue, “Under the Bisexual Umbrella: Diversity of Identity and Experience.” Included in this issue is a series of articles detailing many complexities within the bisexual umbrella. These complexities range from different perspectives on defining and choosing identity labels, to exploration of personal sexualities, to exploring implications of what being under the umbrella might mean for nonbisexual identities. In this introduction, I first provide a description of the bisexual umbrella, discuss how community members and researchers use it, and then delve further into the intricacies of the concept as detailed by many of the authors.

Young bisexual women’s perspectives on the relationship between bisexual stigma, mental health, and sexual health: a qualitative study

Abstract Young bisexual women experience worse mental and sexual health outcomes in comparison to their heterosexual and lesbian peers. These disparities are associated with stigma and devaluation of bisexual identities. The current paper addresses a community-based focus group project in which participants discussed bisexual stigma in regard to bisexual erasure and other stereotypes. Specifically, participants detailed experiences of feeling pressured to provide evidence of their bisexual identity, modifying their relationship or sexual behavior to conform to these expectations, as well as feeling excluded from queer community. Further, participants discussed how these experiences were related to decreased mental and sexual health. Future research should further investigate the relationship between bisexual stigma, pressure to provide evidence of bisexual identity, and negative mental and sexual health outcomes.

Positive Identity Experiences of Young Bisexual and Other Nonmonosexual People: A Qualitative Inquiry

ABSTRACT The majority of LGBTQ psychological research focuses on dysfunction. The exclusion of strengths-based perspectives in LGBTQ psychology limits the understanding of LGBTQ mental health. In this article we report experiences that young bisexual and other nonmonosexual people perceive as affirming of their sexual identity. A 28-day, daily diary study was used to investigate whether bisexual-identified participants encountered positive experiences related to their sexual identity, and which type of experiences they perceived to be positive. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, participants’ experiences were organized according to a social ecological model. Experiences were reported at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and institutional levels, but most positive sexual identity experiences occurred at the interpersonal level. Implications for positive health outcome research and the integration of positive psychology with LGBTQ psychology are discussed, as well as study limitations.

Postpartum depression among visible and invisible sexual minority women: a pilot study.

PurposeSignificant numbers of sexual minority women are choosing to parent. Despite this, there is limited research on postpartum depression (PPD) with sexual minority mothers and less research considering differences within sexual minority women in the experience of PPD. This research examines two questions to address this gap in research: (1) Do experiences of PPD symptoms vary between different subgroups of sexual minority women, and (2) Which recruitment strategies effectively address the challenge of recruiting sexual minority women who are pregnant?MethodsTwo Canadian studies recruited participants via consecutive or convenience sampling from midwifery clinics and hospital sites. Participants completed prenatal and postnatal measures of PPD symptoms, social support, and perceived discrimination.ResultsConsidering our first question, we found an interaction effect between past sexual behavior and current partner gender. Women currently partnered with men reported higher scores on the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale when their sexual history included partners of more than one gender, whereas this effect was not found among women who were currently partnered with women or not partnered. Regarding our second question, most sexual minority participants recruited through convenience sampling were partnered with women and identified as lesbian or queer, while most participants recruited through consecutive sampling were partnered with men and identified as bisexual.ConclusionsWomen whose sexual histories include more than one gender and are currently partnered with men may be at a higher risk for PPD symptoms. Recruitment method may influence the type of sample recruited for perinatal mental health research among sexual minority women.

Occurrence of multiple mental health or substance use outcomes among bisexuals: a respondent-driven sampling study.

BackgroundBisexual populations have higher prevalence of depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance use than heterosexuals, and often than gay men or lesbians. The co-occurrence of multiple outcomes has rarely been studied.MethodsData were collected from 405 bisexuals using respondent-driven sampling. Weighted analyses were conducted for 387 with outcome data. Multiple outcomes were defined as 3 or more of: depression, anxiety, suicide ideation, problematic alcohol use, or polysubstance use.ResultsAmong bisexuals, 19.0xa0% had multiple outcomes. We did not find variation in raw frequency of multiple outcomes across sociodemographic variables (e.g. gender, age). After adjustment, gender and sexual orientation identity were associated, with transgender women and those identifying as bisexual only more likely to have multiple outcomes. Social equity factors had a strong impact in both crude and adjusted analysis: controlling for other factors, high mental health/substance use burden was associated with greater discrimination (prevalence risk ratio (PRR)u2009=u20095.71; 95xa0% CI: 2.08, 15.63) and lower education (PRRu2009=u20092.41; 95xa0% CI: 1.06, 5.49), while higher income-to-needs ratio was protective (PRRu2009=u20090.44; 0.20, 1.00).ConclusionsMental health and substance use outcomes with high prevalence among bisexuals frequently co-occurred. We find some support for the theory that these multiple outcomes represent a syndemic, defined as co-occurring and mutually reinforcing adverse outcomes driven by social inequity.

Perceptions of Gender and Bisexuality: An Exploration of the Relationship Between Perceived Masculinity, Femininity, and Sexual Ambiguity

One of the most enduring stereotypes of gay and lesbian individuals is that they are cross sex-typed, meaning that each group possesses gender characteristics that we typically assign to the other gender: Gay men are typically perceived to be more feminine than straight men and lesbian women, and lesbian women are typically seen as more masculine than straight women and gay men. However, few have investigated whether these same stereotypes apply to bisexual (or sexually ambiguous) individuals. The authors explored the question of how people perceive the level of masculinity and femininity of a target whose sexual orientation is ambiguous, and whether there is a difference in perception depending on whether the target is male or female. Results suggest that peoples perceptions of the degree to which a bisexual individual is masculine or feminine depend on how masculinity and femininity are measured. However, there is also some support for the contention that bisexual people are generally perceived to be androgynous as opposed to cross sex-typed.