Educational Attainment by Life Course Sexual Attraction: Prevalence and Correlates in a Nationally Representative Sample of Young Adults.
Researchers know relatively little about the educational attainment of sexual minorities, despite the fact that educational attainment is consistently associated with a range of social, economic, and health outcomes. We examined whether sexual attraction in adolescence and early adulthood was associated with educational attainment in early adulthood among a nationally representative sample of US young adults. We analyzed Waves I and IV restricted data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n=14,111). Sexual orientation was assessed using self-reports of romantic attraction in Waves I (adolescence) and IV (adulthood). Multinomial regression models were estimated and all analyses were stratified by gender. Women attracted to the same-sex in adulthood only had lower educational attainment compared to women attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescenceandadulthood. Men attracted to the same-sex in adolescence only had lower educational attainment compared to men attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescenceandadulthood. Adolescent experiences and academic performance attenuated educational disparities among men and women. Adjustment for adolescent experiences also revealed a suppression effect; women attracted to the same-sex in adolescence and adulthood had lower predicted probabilities of having a high school diploma or less compared to women attracted only to the opposite-sex in adolescence and adulthood. Our findings challenge previous research documenting higher educational attainment among sexual minorities in the US. Additional population-based studies documenting the educational attainment of sexual minority adults are needed.
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, Room 216, Columbia, SC 29208.
Katrina M
KM
Walsemann
Department of Global and Community Health, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive MS 5B7, Fairfax, VA 22030.
Lisa L
LL
Lindley
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, Room 216, Columbia, SC 29208.
Danielle
D
Gentile
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter Street, Room 216, Columbia, SC 29208.
Shehan V
SV
Welihindha
education; life course; sexual minority; socio-demographics