Study of the coming out process and coping strategies of lesbian women

About this book

The purpose of this study was to document the coming out process in lesbians and to create a seven-stage model to describe this process. Unlike other studies of lesbians, this study included African-American lesbians and older lesbians. The sample comprised 118 women in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area. Eighteen of these women were evaluated as bisexual or predominantly heterosexual in orientation; these women were not included in the analysis of the data. One-fourth of the remaining 100 women who completed all the measures were African-American. One-half of the sample indicated no current religious affiliations and the remainder fit into the expected proportions of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews. Between February and May, 1979, a team of six interviewers conducted personal interviews with the participants. These interviews consisted of 120 precoded questions and several open-ended questions. Major categories in the interviews include coming out, job discrimination, societal oppression, coping strategies, religion, personal attitudes, relating in a heterosexual society, and demographic information. The Murray Center has all computer-accessible data. Typed responses to the open-ended questions are also available.