Narratives of Bisexual College Students: Impacts of Emerging Adulthood, Minority Stress, and Forming Community

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation’s study was to understand the experiences of bisexual college students during emerging adulthood (ages 18-25 years). This study examined the interactions of bisexual students with other LGBTQ+ individuals, and how these experiences shaped their narratives surrounding themselves. A narrative inquiry approach (Josselson & Hammack, 2021) grounded in Queer (Yep et al., 2003) and Quare (Johnson, 2016) epistemologies was utilized to answer the following research questions: (1) How do bisexuals describe their identities changing or evolving from high school to college?, (2) How do bisexuals perceive interactions with other LGBTQ+ people?, and (3) How do bisexual people experience minority stress? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six different participants all identifying under the bisexual umbrella and within emerging adulthood. The data was analyzed using narrative analysis (Josselson & Hammack, 2021) and resulted in the following themes: Increased Engagement with Bisexual Identity Development in Emerging Adulthood, Pervasive Minority Stress Leads to Repetitive Decisions Around Disclosure, Intersectionality Impacts Identity Experiences, and Establishing LGBTQ+ Community is the Most Important Protective Factor, and the Most Complex. In addition to themes, individual narratives of each participant were included.