Psychosocial adjustment during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood: Developmental evidence from sexual minority and heterosexual youth

Dusty D. Jenkins, Alexander T. Vazsonyi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The current study used data from Waves I through III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to compare indicators of adjustment in sexual minority and heterosexual young adults. Using growth curve modeling, results indicated that, on average, all participants had low levels of depression and perceptions of social rejection that tended to decrease over time, and high levels of self-esteem and happiness that tended to increase over time. Sexual minority youth had slightly higher initial levels of depression and perceptions of social rejection, but had the same declines over time as heterosexual youth. Similarly, although sexual minority youth reported slightly lower initial levels of self-esteem and happiness, increases in these adjustment indicators over time were the same across groups. This suggests that heterosexual and sexual minority youth report few differences in the developmental course of these psychosocial outcomes. Implications are discussed and recommendations for future work are provided.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)181-195
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Positive Psychology
Volume8
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc. edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Keywords

  • add health
  • bisexual
  • depression
  • gay
  • growth curve modeling
  • happiness
  • lesbian
  • self-esteem
  • social rejection

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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