Date Thesis Awarded
5-2025
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Psychology
Advisor
Jaclyn Moloney
Committee Members
Madelyn Labella
Jay Watkins
Jaclyn Moloney
Abstract
Limited empirical research exists on the concept of compulsory heterosexuality (comp het). This thesis explored the relationship between various demographic variables with age of acknowledgement and disclosure of a queer identity for a queer William & Mary (n = 52) and a Virginia community (n = 98) sample (N = 150), as well as the relationship between various demographic variables and several comp het-related constructs (social desirability, social support, heterosexism, internal homophobia, connection to LGBTQIA+ community, heteronormativity, prior LGBTQIA+ knowledge, and experienced risk) for an overall William & Mary (n = 136) and Virginia community (n = 106) sample (N = 242). Individuals socialized as women were expected to experience the comp het-related constructs more greatly and both realize and come out as their queer identity later in life than individuals socialized as men. Participants responded to an online survey inquiring about a range of demographic factors, sexual identity, and subsequent experiences, including both validated psychological measures and items created for this study. Regression analyses and ANOVA post hoc comparisons linked demographics with comp het-related experiences, as well as age of acknowledgement and disclosure of LGBTQIA+ identities. An exploratory factor analysis found that the various comp het-related measures included in this study formed four subfactors as they covaried to form the latent construct of comp het. Additional structural equation modeling revealed that the proposed theoretical models for demographics as predicting the latent variable of comp het were an overall poor fit. While the hypotheses about a latent comp het variable were not supported by the findings of this research, several significant results did emerge that help form a basis of knowledge about comp het, as studied through an empirical psychological lens.
Recommended Citation
Griessel, Kendra, "Let’s Get This Straight: LGBTQIA+ Compulsory Heterosexuality and Individual Timing of Queer Self-Acknowledgement and Public-Disclosure Across Demographic Factors" (2025). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 2311.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/2311
