Personal, Relational and Community Aspects of Bisexual Identity in Emerging, Early and Middle Adult Cohorts

This study offered exploratory comparisons of personal, relational and community aspects of bisexual identity for women and men in emerging adulthood relative to those in early and middle adult cohorts. In this sample of 576 bisexual individuals, the pattern of findings for some aspects of bisexual identity (e.g., relationship commitment, bisexual community involvement) was consistent with the developmental perspective that characterizes emerging adulthood as a period of identity exploration and low commitment relative to increasing identity commitment across early and middle adulthood. For other aspects of bisexual identity (e.g., self-described sexual orientation, outness and sexual behavior), gender appeared to play a role, either on its own or in conjunction with life stage cohort.