Complex Outness Patterns Among Sexual Minority Youth: A Latent Class Analysis

Prior scholarship has documented health-relevant consequences of sexual minority youth (SMY) sexual identity disclosure (i.e., “outness”), yet most of the extant work focuses on one social context at a time and/or measures outness as dichotomous: out or not out. However, SMY are out in some contexts (e.g., family, friends) and not in others, and to varying degrees (e.g., to some friends, but not to all). Using a national sample of 8884 SMY ages 13–17 (45% cisgender female, 67% White, 38% gay/lesbian and 34% bisexual, and 36% from the U.S. South), this study used latent class analysis to identify complex patterns of outness among SMY, as well differences in class membership by demographics, depression, family rejection, and bullying. The results indicated six distinct classes: out to all but teachers (n = 1033), out to siblings and peers (n = 1808), out to siblings and LGBTQ peers (n = 1707), out to LGBTQ peers (n = 1376), mostly not out (n = 1653), and very much not out (n = 1307). The findings reveal significant differences in class membership by age, sexual identity, gender identity, race and ethnicity, geography, and well-being outcomes. Moreover, these findings underscore the complex role of outness across social contexts in shaping health and well-being.