Sexual attraction and psychosocial well being in young women

Background: Conventional assessments examining health disparities across sexuality rely on self-identification as a sexual minority (e.g., LGBT). Among young women (18 to 24), this indicator may not reliably capture their lived experiences as many women report fluidity in their sexuality over time. As a result, a measure of same-sex and opposite-sex attraction may more accurately reflect sexual minority status and its relationship to psychological well-being; yet the efficacy of such an approach remains untested. Methods: Using an adapted web-version of Respondent-Driven Sampling (webRDS), we recruited a sample of U.S. young adults (YA; 18 to 24; N=3,400). We used a female-only subsample (N=1,570). As part of the web-survey, participants rated on a scale from 1 (Not at all) to 5 (Extremely) their degree of sexual attraction to males and females, respectively. From these scores, women were divided into 4 groups (low female /low male attraction, low female /high male attraction, high female /low male attraction, or high female /high male attraction). We used a 2x2 factorial design to explore the relationship between experiences of attraction and psychosocial outcomes (e.g. depression, self esteem), adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Results: Bi-attractional women (e.g., high female / high male attraction) reported greater stress and less self esteem than women in the other groups, but also reported more coping skills than the other women. Conclusions: We discuss findings, noting the unique experiences of bi-attractional women, and highlighting the importance of nuanced measures of sexual identity – including sexual attraction - in assessing the psychological well being.