The Impact of Voluntary Disclosure on the

Psychological Well-Being of Homosexual Individuals^Y

 Brian Buzzella, Kristin Beals, Ph.D., and Anne Peplau, Ph.D.

University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

The impact of voluntarily disclosing one’s gay or lesbian identity was examined.  The participants were 102 men and women who self-identified as either gay or lesbian.  This study shows voluntarily disclosing one’s homosexual identity has a positive impact on many measures of psychological well-being.  Further, this study teased apart the impact of this disclosure within one’s social network, including the impact on one’s family and heterosexual friends.  A new measure of disclosure, the disclosure grid, which assesses an individual's entire social network while gathering information on each person in that network, was utilized.  As expected, the impact of voluntary disclosure varied by the group being disclosed to.  This study has important implications for understanding the reasons for disclosing a potentially stigmatizing attribute that is not readily apparent to others, such an attribute is known as a concealable stigma.

The Impact of Voluntary Disclosure on the Psychological Well-being of Homosexual Individuals

Individuals consciously attempt to edit how others perceive them, selecting which pieces of information to share, when to laugh, how to dress and, in short, trying to manage the impression others will form of them by monitoring what they allow others to know or see (Collins & Ma, 1999).  For gay men and lesbian women this process of identity management is often part of an attempt to mediate their exposure to stigma; stigma is an attribute, which if known, causes an individual to be devalued (Goffman, 1963). In our society, homosexuality is a stigmatized trait.  Gay and lesbian individuals whose sexual orientation is not visibly discernable have a concealable stigma, that is, unless they disclose their sexuality, no one else will know.

The stigma associated with homosexuality is derived from negative societal attitudes, fear, or hatred of gay and lesbian individuals, collectively known as homophobia.  Homophobia is pervasive and influences every individual in our society to differing degrees, regardless of their sexual orientation.  When an individual identifies as gay or lesbian they must decide when to disclose their stigmatized sexual orientation and to whom.  The reactions of those in the social network will influence the discloser's perception of the social support available to them.  Researchers such as Franke and Leary (1991) have shown that the psychological well-being of lesbian women and gay men is affected by bearing a concealable stigma, the intensity of their homophobic feelings, and the social support available to them.  This paper will examine the impact of voluntarily disclosing one’s sexual orientation on one’s psychological well-being. 

Disclosure

            The disclosure of a stigmatized identity leaves one vulnerable to rejection.  Deciding whether or not to reveal one’s sexual orientation therefore serves an important function in identity management, mediating exposure to stigma.  Since disclosure may have negative consequences, there must be motivation to continue to disclose.  Several researchers have begun to examine these factors.  For instance, Cain (1991) created conceptual categories organizing the reasons that gay men gave for disclosing their sexual orientation.  He proposed the following six categories: therapeutic disclosures, relationship-building disclosures, problem-solving disclosures, preventative disclosures, political disclosures, and spontaneous disclosures.  Franke and Leary (1991) went beyond theoretical constructs.  Their examination of the factors associated with disclosure utilized a questionnaire distributed via three mailing lists for mostly gay and lesbian individuals.  Of the 184 respondents, 110 were male, 74 were female, 170 identified as gay or lesbian and 14 identified as bisexual.  The questionnaire assessed ten conceptual categories: openness about one’s sexuality, participation in gay activities such as rallies or support group meetings, self-esteem, self-esteem in regards to sexual orientation in particular, perceptions of others’ beliefs about gay and lesbian individuals, level of internalized homophobia, the degree to which popular stereotypes about homosexuals were believed, satisfaction with one’s sexual orientation, importance of religion in daily life, and how ethically conservative one is.  Franke and Leary discovered that an individual’s honesty about their sexuality is most strongly correlated with that individual’s perception of their social environment as accepting of homosexual people.   

Franke and Leary’s (1991) design had two main flaws.  First, the researchers did not have access to the mailing lists used; thus, it is unclear if any of the respondents were on more than one of the mailing lists, possibly filling out the questionnaire up to three different times.  If true, this could bias their results dramatically.  Those individuals willing to complete and return the questionnaire will likely score higher on the measure of openness about their sexuality.  Those people who are carefully concealing their sexual orientation are unlikely to risk detection by engaging in any behavior that might lead to their sexual orientation being discovered, in this case completing a questionnaire about their sexual orientation.  Moreover, if any of the respondents filled out the questionnaire multiple times the results would become quite skewed.  Unfortunately, the authors do not provide information on the questionnaire response rate.  In addition, a number of confounding variables were not considered.  For instance, the authors did not assess the length of time since the respondents began disclosing their sexual orientation to others.  It may be that beliefs about others’ views on homosexuality are influenced by how comfortable an individual is with their own sexual orientation.  Further, level of comfort with sexuality may be correlated with the length of time they have been out. 

Jordan and Deluty (1998) also examined the motivations associated with disclosure of sexual orientation. They hypothesized that one reason to disclose is the expectation that doing so will improve an individual’s sense of psychological well-being.  Their analyses revealed that women who are in a relationship with another woman and who disclose their sexual orientation across a greater breadth of people report less anxiety and greater self-esteem.  The data also suggested that others knowing one’s sexual orientation, especially one’s friends, was associated with greater social support.   

Voluntary vs. Involuntary Disclosure.  An important distinction can be made between two forms of disclosure, voluntary and involuntary disclosure (Beals & Peplau, 2001).  Voluntary disclosure occurs when a stigmatized individual explicitly shares information with another person, for instance by telling someone that he or she is gay or writing the person a letter.  In contrast, involuntary disclosure occurs when others know one’s sexual orientation without having been told voluntarily.  This could occur in a number of ways.  As one example, a parent might find a diary written by a gay son revealing his sexual orientation.  Although research has not yet considered this issue, the type of disclosure, whether voluntary or involuntary, can have important implications for the mental health of people with concealable stigmas.  Involuntary disclosure involves a loss of control over the management of one’s identity, which could increase feelings of depression and self-esteem.  Conversely, voluntary disclosure may buffer mental health by maintaining one’s sense of control.  

Internalized Homophobia among Lesbians and Gay Men

Symanski and Chung (2001) define homophobia as an illogical apprehension, disgust, and bigotry aimed at homosexual people solely because of their sexual orientation.  Due to its widespread presence in our culture, everyone is exposed to homophobia.  This exposure may come from family, friends, the media, or the surrounding community. Because it is from trusted sources, all children, regardless of sexual orientation, integrate these views into their own belief systems.  The process of incorporating negative attitudes about homosexuals into one’s belief system is known as internalizing the homophobia.  As gay and lesbian individuals develop and form sexual identities, their development is overshadowed by the bigoted stereotypes that have been learned.  Unlike heterosexual individuals, gay and lesbian people direct these homophobic judgments, and the associated scorn, at themselves. 

Psychological Impact of Internalized Homophobia.  Research has only begun to explore the damage that internalized homophobia has on the self-evaluation of gay men and lesbian women.  Kahn (1991) examined the effects of internalized homophobia among a selective, volunteer sample of lesbians living in a metropolitan city in the Midwest.  Participants were recruited through friendship networks, coffeehouses, clubs, political groups, and other organizations that serve the lesbian community.  The respondents mailed in the completed questionnaires, which assessed identity development, openness, family communication, and sex-role attitudes.  Internalized homophobia was significantly associated with lower ratings of self-acceptance and less ability to disclose one’s sexuality to others.  Based on his work as a therapist, Cabaj (1988) found that intense feelings of internalized homophobia tend to correlate with self-hatred, self-doubt, feelings of inferiority, belief in the accuracy of popular homosexual stereotypes, and limiting one’s own aspirations. 

As has been seen, internalized homophobia acts to damage the psychological well-being of gay men (Cabaj, 1988) and lesbian women (Kahn, 1991).  Further, internalized homophobia is expressed in similar ways within the lesbian and gay communities; its presence is positively correlated with negative self-evaluations and acceptance of popular, negative homosexual stereotypes (Cabaj, 1988 & Kahn, 1991).  Such negative beliefs will have important implications for disclosure. Accepting the stereotype that gay and lesbian people are immoral will make it less likely that one will chose to disclose their homosexual identity to others.  By stifling disclosure, social support may be severely impaired as well.   

Social Support

            Social support is the possibility, or presence, of help should it be needed.  The presence or absence of social support has been shown to have a strong impact on one’s psychological well-being.  Researchers have used two different measures of social support. Structural social support is an accounting of the people who are a part of an individual’s social network (Waller, 2001).  This framework counts and categorizes the relationships with friends and family but does not attempt to capture the amount of support actually present in a given relationship.  If the goals of the study are to explore if one’s social network increases or changes after coming out, this is an appropriate framework to guide data collection. 

The second measure, termed as perceived social support, is the belief that social support is, or at least would be, available if it were needed (Waller (2001).  Waller discovered that perceived social support enhances an individual’s well-being through a strengthening of one’s ability to cope with events as they arise.  People perceiving high levels of social support report lower levels of depression, higher self-esteem, and greater optimism (Waller, 2001).  Thus, the perception that social support is available when it is needed has important implications for an individual’s psychological well-being.

The Current Study

This study had three main goals.  First, to investigate the impact of voluntarily disclosing, as opposed to involuntarily disclosing, one’s sexual orientation on the relationship this disclosure occurs within.  In particular, it was predicted that participants would perceive greater acceptance of their sexual orientation and report higher ratings of current relationship quality when they engaged in voluntary disclosure, as opposed to involuntary disclosure.  This prediction will be examined in an analysis of each participant's entire social network.         

It was also hypothesized that there would be a significant association between the number of voluntary disclosure instances participants engaged in and their feelings of psychological well-being.  In particular, it was predicted that across the entire network, voluntary disclosure would be positively correlated with self-reported ratings of social support, self-esteem, and psychological well-being and negatively correlated with depression and internalized homophobia.   

Lastly, exploratory analyses were completed to examine if the above hypotheses held true when only participants’ family members or heterosexual friends were considered.

Method

Participants

A total of 102 participants, 60 gay men and 42 lesbian women, were recruited to participate in this study of disclosure of sexual orientation and well-being.  The participants ranged in age from 18 to 68 years, with a mean of 30.2 years; only 64 of the participants were full-time students.  Thirty-three participants were working full-time and 42 people had already completed a bachelors, masters, or doctorate.  Sixty participants were Caucasian, six identified as African American, five as Asian American, and seventeen as Latino.  In order to participate, individuals had to self-identify as gay or lesbian and have disclosed their sexual orientation to at least one person. 

Recruitment

Subjects were recruited from the UCLA campus community in three main ways.  Announcements were made via campus services aimed at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.  This included emails sent to the GayBruins listserve, flier postings at the LGBT campus resource center, and announcements made in LGBT studies classes.  Second, to reach individuals who may not be involved in LGBT activities at UCLA, fliers were posted around campus, ads were placed in the Daily Bruin, and the study was made available to the Psychology 10 subject pool.  Finally, those involved in the study, both participants and researchers, provided information about the study to people in their social networks.   

Procedure

Participants came to a research room in the psychology department to take part in a study of disclosure among gay men and lesbian women conducted by Kristin Beals, all data for this study is from that project.  The principal investigator explained the study, and asked the participants to give consent.  The data for this project was taken from a larger study including a series of questionnaires, a new measure of disclosure within one’s social network, and a daily diary form.  All data was taken from the baseline assessment.

Measures

            The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD) (Radloff, 1977) measures feelings associated with depression that have occurred during the past week.  Respondents rate each of 20 items on a 4-point scale with anchors at 0 (less than one day in the past week) and  3 (5-7 days in the last week).  Sample items include: “I did not feel like eating, my appetite was poor” and “I had trouble keeping my mind on what I was doing.”  This measure has high internal consistency (standardized ά = .81) and concurrent validity with clinical diagnosis.   

            The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) assesses feelings of self-worth, and has been found to be a reliable measure of self-esteem. Participants indicate their agreement with 15 statements about themselves, the first 10 measuring self-esteem.  Some statements are positive, “I feel that I have a number of good qualities,” and others are negative, “at times I think I am not good at all.”  For each statement, participants are asked to indicate their level of agreement on a 4-point scale with anchors at 1 (“strongly disagree”) and 4 (“strongly agree”). This measure was internally consistent (standardized ά = .92). 

            The Scales of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff, 1996) uses 54 items to assess a participant’s feelings of well-being.  Sample items are as follows: “I am not afraid to voice my opinions, even when they are in opposition to the opinions of most people” and “Maintaining close relationships has been difficult and frustrating for me”.  Participants’ rate each item on a 6-point scale with anchors at 1 (“disagree strongly”) and 6 (“agree strongly”).  In previous research the 54 items cluster together into 6 sub-scales with strong reliability for each scale.  The scales and their reliability scores from the current project, are self-acceptance (.87), autonomy (.86), positive relations (.51), environmental mastery (.88), personal growth (.77), and purpose in life (.80).  This measure was internally consistent (standardized ά = .95).  

            Internalized Homophobia (Martin & Dean, 1998, cited in Herek, Cogan, Gillis, & Glunt, 1998) utilizes 9 items to measure one’s negative attitudes about their gay or lesbian identity.  Additionally, 4 items were added that measure less extreme negative feelings.  One of the original items is “I feel alienated from myself because of being gay/lesbian”.  A newly added item is “I am proud of my sexual orientation.”  Participants’ rate each item on a 5-point scale with anchors at 1 (“disagree strongly”) and 6 (“agree strongly”).   This measure was internally consistent (standardized ά = .80), including the newly added items. 

The Social Provisions Questionnaire (Cutrona & Russell, 1987) assesses an individual’s perception of the social support available to him/her.  The 24 item measure contains six sub-scales: reliable alliance, attachment, guidance, nurturance, social integration, and reassurance of worth.  For each sub-scale two positively and two negatively worded items exist.  “There are people who depend on me for help” represents a positively worded nurturance sub-scale item.  “There are people I can depend on to help me if I really need it” is an example of a negatively worded reliable alliance sub-scale item.  Participants’ rate each item on a 4-point scale with anchors at 1 (“disagree strongly”) and 4 (“strongly agree”).   This measure was internally consistent (standardized ά = .89). 

The Disclosure Grid (Beals & Peplau, 2001) is a comprehensive measure of one’s level of disclosure across the social network.  Participants first describe their social network and then answer a series of questions about each of the people listed.  These items consider such issues as whether or not the person knows the participant’s sexual orientation, if the participant told this individual about his/her sexual orientation voluntarily, and how well that network member accepts the participant’s sexual orientation.  The GRID provided measures of both voluntary and involuntary disclosure.  To do so, participants were asked whether or not each individual in their network knew of their sexual orientation.  If they answered yes, they were then asked if they themselves had told each of these people.  Involuntary disclosure was conceptualized as network members who knew the participant’s sexual orientation although the participant had not told them.  Voluntary disclosure was defined as telling others your sexual orientation.  This measure has been used in a study of gay men and lesbian women (Beals & Peplau, 2001). 

Results

Major Goals and Analytic Approach

Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was required to test the first hypothesis because it takes into account the nested nature of the social network member information.  In other words, it accounts for the fact that the participant is reporting on the relationships they have with a number of individuals.  HLM computes the within-person association between voluntary disclosure and levels of current acceptance or current relationship quality.  For instance, an HLM derived beta of .20 represents an increase in .2 units when going from involuntary to voluntary disclosure.   

Hypothesis 1: Voluntary Disclosure will be correlated with Acceptance and Relationship Quality

            Hypothesis 1.  It was predicted that participants would perceive greater acceptance of their sexual orientation and report higher ratings of current relationship quality when they engaged in voluntary disclosure, as opposed to involuntary disclosure. 

Testing Hypothesis 1 for the Entire Network.  Using HLM, it was found that voluntary disclosure, as compared to involuntary disclosure, was associated with greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation when all of a participant's network members were considered; however, this relationship was not significant (B = .20, SE = .11, p = .06).  Figure 1 shows the difference in the rate of acceptance associated with voluntary versus involuntary disclosure.  Further, as shown in figure 2, voluntary disclosure, compared to involuntary disclosure, was associated with significantly higher ratings of current relationship quality (B = .39, SE = .09, p < .01). 

Testing Hypothesis 1 with Family Members.  Looking only at family members, voluntary disclosure was associated with significantly greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation when compared to involuntary disclosure (B = .43, SE = .15, p < .01).  Figure 1 shows the significantly greater level of acceptance associated with voluntary disclosure.  Moreover, figure 2 presents the significantly higher ratings of current relationship quality associated with voluntary disclosure, relative to involuntary disclosure (B = .38, SE = .17, p < .05). 

Testing Hypothesis 1 with Heterosexual Friends.  Among one’s heterosexual friends, voluntary disclosure, as compared to involuntary disclosure, was not predictive of significantly greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation (B = -.05, SE = .07, p = .46).  However, compared to involuntary disclosure, voluntary disclosure predicted significantly greater ratings of current relationship quality (B = .31, SE = .13, p < .05).  Figure 2 presents the significant association between voluntary disclosure and relationship quality. 

Hypothesis 2: Correlation between Voluntary Disclosure and  Measures of Psychological Well-being

            Hypothesis 2.  It was hypothesized that there would be a significant association between the number of voluntary disclosure instances participants engaged in and their feelings of psychological well-being. 

Testing Hypothesis 2 in the Entire Network.  All of the predictions about how voluntary disclosure would correlate with psychological well-being were supported in an analysis of the entire social network.  A greater number of voluntary disclosure was significantly associated with greater social support (r = .28, p < .01), higher self-esteem (r =. 28, p < .01) and better psychological well-being (r =. 29, p < .01). Also as predicted, greater instances of voluntary disclosure, across the social network, were significantly negatively correlated with depression (r = -.22, p < .05) and internalized homophobia (r = -.36, p < .01).  Table 1 shows each of the correlations found between the measures of psychological well-being and voluntary disclosure, all of which were significant.

Testing Hypothesis 2 with Family Members.  The same correlational analyses that were run for the entire network were run using only family members.  Among family members, voluntary disclosure was significantly associated with social support (r = .26, p < .05), psychological well-being (r = .22, p < .05), and perceived homophobia (r = -.32, p < .05) but self-esteem and depression were not.  Because the voluntary disclosure was less predictive among family members, the correlations between involuntary disclosure and psychological well-being were examined.  This revealed that involuntary disclosure was significantly correlated with social support (r = .23, p < .05), self-esteem (r = .23, p < .05), psychological well-being (r = .25, p < .05), perceived homophobia (r = -.36, p < .01) and depression (r = -.22, p < .05).  Table 1 presents the correlations between voluntary disclosure and psychological well-being; as is shown, among family members the number of instances of involuntary disclosure was a greater predictor of psychological well-being.

Testing Hypothesis 2 with Heterosexual Friends.  An analysis of the correlations between the degree of voluntary disclosure and psychological well-being were run.  Across one’s heterosexual friends voluntary disclosure is significantly correlated with depression (r = -.22, p < .05) and psychological well-being (r = .21, p < .01).  This led to an analysis of the correlates between involuntary disclosure and psychological well-being.  Involuntary disclosure was not significantly correlated with any of the psychological well-being measures.  Refer to table 1 for a list of all correlations between the measures of psychological well-being and voluntary versus involuntary disclosure.  Notice that although voluntary disclosure was not significantly correlated with all measures of psychological well-being it was more predictive than was involuntary disclosures. 

Discussion

The Impact of Voluntary Disclosure on Current Acceptance

Within the entire network, it was predicted that voluntary disclosure of one’s sexual orientation would be associated with greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation.  The association between voluntary disclosure, as compared to involuntary disclosure, and perceived current acceptance was marginally significant. 

Looking at family members, voluntary disclosure was associated with significantly greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation when compared to involuntary disclosure.  Thus when a lesbian or gay individual tells a family member of their sexual orientation they will perceive greater acceptance of that sexuality than if the family member had discovered the information from some other source.  Further, the difference between voluntary and involuntary disclosure was statistically significant.  Therefore, the difference between voluntary and involuntary disclosure is greater within family members than it was within the entire network. 

Within one’s heterosexual friends, voluntary disclosure, as compared to involuntary disclosure, was not predictive of significantly greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation.  However, voluntary disclosure was still predictive of greater acceptance than was involuntary disclosure.  This suggests that directly disclosing one’s sexual orientation to a heterosexual friend predicts greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation by that heterosexual friend later in time. 

One possible explanation for the increase in perceived acceptance is that lesbian and gay individuals voluntarily disclosure their sexual orientation to those whom they believe will provide them with greater acceptance.  Another prospect is that voluntary, versus involuntary disclosure, actually elicits more acceptance of one’s sexual orientation from network members.  Gay and lesbian individuals may tell those people whom they believe will be accepting of their sexual orientation and, in turn, voluntarily disclosing one’s sexual orientation may elicit greater acceptance of one’s sexual orientation. 

An Examination of the Impact of Voluntary Disclosure on Current Relationship Quality 

Voluntarily disclosing one’s sexual orientation was significantly associated with higher ratings of current relationship quality than was involuntary disclosure across all relationship groupings.  Therefore, telling someone within any of these network groupings that you identify as gay or lesbian is predictive of a stronger relationship with that person than if they had heard through another source.

A number of possible explanations exist.  It could be that sharing sexual orientation with another person causes an individual to feel closer to that person, or that individuals chose to tell those people whom they already feel close to.  It implies that as gay and lesbian individuals are coming to terms with their own sexual orientation they will tell people whom they believe will be supportive.  However, as they become more comfortable with their own sexual orientation they will disclose to people with whom they share a less intense friendship.  This disclosure will in turn strengthen that relationship.   

Correlations between Psychological Well-being and Disclosure

Voluntary disclosure was significantly correlated with psychological well-being.  In particular, voluntary disclosure was significantly associated with greater social support, higher self-esteem, and better psychological well-being.  Therefore, as the participants voluntarily disclosed to more people in their social network, their perception of the social support available to them, their level of self-esteem, and their feelings of psychological well-being all increased.  Further, the number of voluntary disclosures was significantly negatively correlated with depression and internalized homophobia.  Therefore, voluntarily disclosing one's sexual orientation is associated with lower feelings of internalized homophobia and lower feelings of depression. 

Due to the correlational nature of these results, a causal relationship cannot be inferred.  It is possible that voluntarily disclosing one's sexual orientation causes greater self-esteem and lessens depression, etc.  However, it is also possible that when an individual has low feelings of internalized homophobia, high self-esteem, etc. they are more likely to voluntarily disclose their sexual orientation to others within their network.  Results from this study imply that early instances of voluntary disclosure are contingent on situational factors and feeling safe in sharing sensitive information with that person.  However, as the person grows more comfortable and confident with their sexual orientation they will continue to voluntarily disclose their sexual orientation, which will in turn increase their feelings of self-esteem, lessen their feelings of depression, etc.    

The number of voluntary disclosures was not a strong predictor of psychological well-being among participants' family members.  Voluntary disclosure was significantly associated with social support, psychological well-being, and perceived homophobia but not with self-esteem and depression.  Due to the weak predictive value of voluntary disclosure, the numbers of instances of involuntary disclosure with each of the measures of mental health were correlated.  This revealed that involuntary disclosure was significantly correlated with greater social support, higher self-esteem, higher psychological well-being, less perceived homophobia, and less depression.  Thus, the occurrence of involuntary disclosure was a better predictor of psychological well-being among family members than was voluntary disclosure.    

As family members may form a more cohesive unit than the entire social network individuals may assume that by voluntarily disclosing to an important family member the information will spread to other family members.  For instance, if you voluntarily disclose to your parents, they may tell your extended family.  In fact, parents not sharing this information with other family members may suggest to the lesbian or gay individual that their parents are embarrassed or uncomfortable with their sexual orientation.         

Across an individual’s heterosexual friends, the number of voluntary disclosures an individual engages in is significantly correlated with lower feelings of depression and greater psychological well-being.  Since involuntary disclosure had proven predictive of mental health in family, the predictive value among heterosexual friends was tested.  Involuntary disclosure was not significantly correlated with any measure of psychological well-being.  Thus, while voluntary disclosure was only significantly correlated with lower depression and greater psychological well-being it was more predictive of mental health than involuntary disclosure.

It is unclear at this time why voluntary disclosure would only be significantly correlated with these two measures of well-being.   

Strengths and Limitations

            This study had a number of strengths.  Most importantly, it allowed for a consideration of disclosure both within and across social network categories.  This was made possible through a use of the disclosure grid.  Participants were asked to report on their relationship with each person they listed and they were instructed to list all of the individuals in their social network.   

Further, a large, diverse data set was gathered.  This diversity was found within both the participants and the questionnaire data.  The range of experiences was captured in the vast array of disclosure experiences.  Out of 102 participants, some had started disclosing their sexual orientation 30 years ago while others had only begun the process of revealing their gay or lesbian identity.  In addition to a large participant pool, several measures of psychological well-being were utilized.  As evidenced among the heterosexual friend category, this allowed for an analysis of the impact of disclosure on various facets of psychological well-being. 

Two limitations in the study are noteworthy.  First, the gender of the participant's network members was not assessed in all cases.  Participants were asked about heterosexual friends and co-workers, but were not instructed to indicate gender.  Knowing the gender of the participants' network members would have allowed for an analysis of patterns of disclosure based on the gender of the participant and the gender of the network member. 

Second, the study was based on retrospective self-reports.  The disclosure grid requires participants to provide information dealing with three distinct periods: before disclosing to a network member, after disclosing their sexual orientation to this person, and at the time they are completing the questionnaires.  For instance, participants are asked to report on their relationship quality with each network member before disclosing to that person, how they initially reacted to the disclosure and what their relationship is like now.  However, because some participants have been out for 30 years they are likely to inaccurately recall relationship information from before disclosing their sexual orientation. 

Generalizability

            This sample was not constrained to college age populations.  Participants ranged from 18-68 years of age, some individuals had earned their doctorate, and some had not finished high school.  The diversity found within this sample allows for greater generalizability than would have been attained from a strictly undergraduate population.  However, the sample is very highly educated; ninety percent of the sample had completed at least some college.  Therefore, the results may not generalize to individuals with less education. 

Future Research

Future research might utilize a longitudinal research design.  By following participants over time, and asking them to report on their social network at multiple time points, a better understanding of the impact of voluntary and involuntary disclosure on interpersonal relationships would be possible.  In particular, a longitudinal study would allow for perceptions of relationship quality and acceptance, which are likely to change over time, to be monitored before and after disclosure occurs.  Moreover, by adding a space on the disclosure grid for the gender of the network member one could examine if men respond differently than women to voluntary or involuntary disclosure.  

References

Beals, K.P. & Peplau, L.A. (2001).  Social involvement, disclosure of sexual orientation, and the quality of lesbian relationships.  Psychology of Women Quarterly, 25, 10-19.

Cabaj, R.P. (1988).  Homosexuality and neurosis: Considerations for psychotherapy. Journal of Homosexuality, 15(1), 13-23.

Cain, R. (1991). Stigma management and gay identity development.  Social Work, 36(1), 67-73.

Collins, B.E. & Ma, L. (1999). Impression management and identity construction in the Milgram social system.  In, T. Blass (Ed.), Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm (pp 61-90). Hillsdale, NJ; Lawrence Erlbaum.

Franke, R., and Leary, M. (1991). Disclosure of sexual orientation by Lesbians and Gay Men: A comparison of private and public processes.  Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 10(3), 262-269.

Goffman, E. (1963).  Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. New York, New York: Simon and Schuster Inc.

Jordan, K.M., Deluty, R.H. (1998).  Coming out for Lesbian women: Its relation to anxiety, positive affectivity, self-esteem, and social support.  Journal of Homosexuality, 35(2), 41-63.

Kahn, M.J. (1991). Factors affecting the coming out process for Lesbians. Journal of Homosexuality, 21(3), 47-70.

Symanski, D.M. and Chung, Y.B. (2001).  The Lesbian internalized homophobia scale: A rational/theoretical approach.  Journal of Homosexuality, 41(2), 37-52.

Waller, M.A. (2001).  Gay men with AIDS: Perceptions of social support and adaptational outcome.  Journal of Homosexuality, 41(2), 99-117.

Table 1

Correlations Between Outcome Measures and Voluntary Disclosure Among Social NetworkGroupings (N= 99)

*p < .05.   **p < .01.

Figure 1

Current acceptance across relationships by type of disclosure, voluntary vs. involuntary

** p < .01

Figure 2

Current relationship quality across relationships by type of disclosure, voluntary vs. involuntary.

*p < .05.

**p < .01.

^Y The data for this project was gathered by Dr. Beals.