1. The Disclosure of Virginity Status and Sexual Orientation
Teah-Marie R. Bynion, Alyssa A. Belfy, & Michael D. Barnett, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, University of North Texas
INTRODUCTION
HYPOTHESIS
DISCUSSION
The cultural significance of virginity and virginity loss in North America is considerable, often representing a transition to adulthood and a loss of sexual innocence (Humphreys, 2013).
When a person decides to lose their virginity, they are effectively electing to adopt a new personal identity – and potentially a new social identity – should they choose to disclose their new status (Carpenter, 2001).
Self-disclosure is the intentional revelation of personal and private information about the self that another would have trouble finding out without being told.
Disclosure of virginity status refers to an individual’s revelation of their status as a virgin or non-virgin, based on their subjective definition of virginity. While some people are proud of their virginal status, others may be ashamed or even embarrassed, thus diverse ways of framing virginity loss currently coexist in the U.S. (Seidman, 1991).
The purpose of this study was to investigate disclosure of virginity status and its relationship to sexual orientation.
There will be significant differences between sexual orientation groups and the disclosure of virginity status.
There will be significant differences between heterosexual and bisexual groups.
These findings are generally consistent with the literature on sexual orientation and coming out. For example, gay men become aware of their same-sex attraction and act on their homosexual feelings earlier than lesbians (Riddle & Morin, 1977).
Additionally, lesbians are likely to reject heteronormative definitions in favor of locating their own loss of virginity during their first sexual encounter with a woman (Carpenter 2001).
This study reflects preliminary results to a larger study designed as an exploratory investigation of DVS and its relationship to other sociodemographic variables.
Overall, the findings of this study provide support for the hypothesis that virginity loss is closely intertwined with the process of coming out.
Table 1
Demographics
Gender N %
Male
284
28.8
Female
698
70.8
Ethnicity
White/Caucasian
526
53.3
Black/ African American
147
14.9
Hispanic
197
20.0
Asian/Pacific Islander 82
8.3
Other 31
3.1
Sexual Orientation
Heterosexual
879
89.1
Gay 15
1.5
Lesbian 20
2.0
Bisexual 46
4.7 26
2.6
LIMITATIONS
There were several limitations to the studied that should be taken into consideration. This includes demographic factors of the sample consisting of predominantly white female participants.
In addition, the DVS was intended to model that of the OI and requires further validation.
Future research in this area would benefit from a more demographically diverse sample size. Furthermore, additional measures should be included to more accurately identify and measure virginity status and disclosure. Finally, contextual factors, personality, and individual difference should be taken into consideration.
METHOD
RESULTS
Participants
Undergraduate students (N = 986; Mage = ; SD = 3.65) enrolled in a psychology course at the University of North Texas.
The majority identified as heterosexual females while the following categories consisted of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other.
Please see Table 1 for detailed demographics.
Measures
The Disclosure of Virginity Scale (DVS; Belfy & Barnett, manuscript in preparation) consists of 4-items and asks participants to indicate how likely they are to disclose their virginity status to others. Higher scores indicated a higher level of disclosure.
Additional items were modeled after those from measures of disclosure of sexual orientation [Outness Inventory (OI); Mohr & Fassinger, 2000]
Procedure
The survey was available online through the Qualtrics website and took approximately one hour to complete. Students received course credit for participation.
Participants also completed a randomly-ordered battery of questionnaires unrelated to the current project.
A one-way ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the assumption of differences between groups.
Due to a violation of the homogeneity of variances, post-hoc Games Howell test was conducted.
As expected, significant differences between groups were found for two conditions at the p<.05 level for one condition F(7,985) = 3.038, p = .004
Results indicated that the mean score for others ( M = 28.13, SD = 4.88) was significantly different than lesbians (M = 20.35, SD = 8.45)
Overall, gay males (M = 26.26) and others ( M = 28.13) reported the highest level of DVS;), followed by bisexuals (M = 24.93), heterosexuals/straight (M = 25.29), and lesbians who reported the lowest rate of DVS (M = 20.35).
REFERENCES
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Jordan, K. M., & Deluty, R. H. (2000). Social support, coming out, and relationship satisfaction in lesbian couples. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 4, doi: /J155v04n01_09
Mohr, J., & Fassinger, R. (2000). Outness Inventory. Psyctests, doi: /t