Status attainment refers to the process in which people obtain positions in the status hierarchy. Sociodemographic background strongly affects the level of success in status attainment, which produces and reproduces inequality across social groups. This study considers sexual orientation as a dimension of sociodemographic background and investigates whether and how sexual orientation influences status attainment. Statistical analysis is conducted using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) Waves 1 through 4. The level of success in status attainment is measured by educational qualifications, occupational prestige, and earnings. The project pays special attention to the dynamic aspect of sexual orientation by assessing the continuity and change in same-sex experience (attraction, dating relationships, and sexual contact), and it highlights the dynamic aspect of status attainment by tracing youth as they complete secondary and postsecondary education, enter the labor force, and take on family roles. The project will identify what factors give rise to the relationship between sexual orientation and status attainment outcomes and what factors exacerbate or moderate the relationship.
Broader Impacts
This study seeks to make three major contributions to the discipline of sociology. First, focusing on sexual orientation, the research will extend the existing knowledge about social inequality in the status attainment process, which has mainly concentrated on race, gender, and family socioeconomic class as social determinants of inequality. Second, the study will increase understanding about the relationship between sexual development and status attainment. Extending the past research that focused on heterosexual development, the study examines the impact of same-sex sexual development on status attainment. Third, research findings will increase knowledge about the diversity within the sexual minority population by considering individual differences in sexual development and status attainment as dimensions of diversity.
This study examined the association between sexual orientation and the level of success in status attainment—a process in which people obtain their positions in the status hierarchy. The study focused on the following three questions: (1) Are people who report same-sex sexuality more successful or less successful in status attainment than other people?; (2) Are the timing of first same-sex experience and its continuity associated with the level of success in status attainment?; and (3) What factors account for these associations and shift the magnitude of the associations? To answer these questions, statistical analyses were conducted using a publicly available survey data set, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, Waves 1 through 4. The main analyses consisted of four parts with each part focusing on a different status attainment outcome variable—highest educational degree obtained by young adulthood, occupational status (one’s position in the occupational hierarchy), gender typicality of the occupation, and personal earnings. As of August 2012, four papers have been written and submitted to peer-reviewed scholarly journals. Of these papers, one paper has been accepted for publication, and the three other papers are under review. One of the papers was presented at the American Sociological Association meeting in August 2012. Overall, the analyses illustrated that sexual orientation is associated with status attainment in a complex way—the association varies by gender, timing and continuity of sexual development, exclusivity of same-sex orientation, status attainment outcome variables, and measures of sexual orientation (attraction, dating relationship, sexual contact, and identity). The analysis also made important progress in identifying the factors that account for the association. For example, the analysis of educational attainment showed that women who report same-sex experience obtain lower educational degrees than those without such experience, regardless of its timing and continuity, and this association is more pronounced when attraction is used as an indicator of sexual orientation than other measures. Elevated levels of depressive symptoms in young adulthood partly explain these women’s attainment disadvantage, indicating negative consequences of stigma that they face in the heteronormative society. Among men, those who report their first same-sex experience in young adulthood obtain higher degrees than those who report first experience in adolescence and those who do not report such experience, and this association is more pronounced when sexual contact and dating relationships are used as indicators of sexual orientation. Higher educational expectations in adolescence explain these men’s advantage in educational attainment. One interpretation of this finding is that a delay in sexual development reflects strong commitment to conventional goals, which promotes the status attainment process. The study makes three major contributions to the discipline of sociology. First, the study demonstrated that sexual orientation is an important dimension of status attainment disparities, extending past research that focused on race, gender, and family socioeconomic class. Also, the study highlighted the importance of gender for understanding the attainment disparities across sexuality groups because the pattern of disparities across sexuality groups depends on gender. Second, extending past research that focused on the timing of heterosexual development, this study highlighted that the timing of same-sex sexual development also has significant implications for status attainment as it shifts opportunities and constraints in adolescence and young adulthood. Third, adding to the emerging literature on the diversity within the sexual minority population, the study demonstrated that the population is diverse in terms of timing of sexual development and exclusivity of same-sex orientation, and that these individual differences are linked to variations in the level of success in status attainment.
