Explaining diversity in the development of same-sex sexuality among young women

This article summarizes findings from two ongoing studies charting the development of 167 adolescent and young adult sexual-minority women. Results document considerable variation in the quality, relative distribution, and context of women's same-sex and other-sex attractions, Furthermore, contrary to conventional wisdom, the timing of a woman's first same-sex attractions is not systematically related to subsequent features of sexual identity development. Rather; the quality and context of a woman's early attractions and behavior is more important. We argue that variability in sexual-minority and heterosexual women's development is best explained by interactions between personal characteristics and environmental contexts, and we urge future studies of the sexual-minority, life course to include women with same-sex attractions that do not identify, as lesbian or bisexual.