Outness, self-esteem, stigma, psychological health and mobile dating application use in gay and bisexual men
Authors
O'Connor, John
Issue Date
2016
Degree
BA (Hons) in Psychology
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
Background; Outness consists of Disclosure and Concealment, the sliding scale of each relates to the pattern of people’s openness regarding their sexual orientation. Contemporary psychological research continuous to conflate Gay and Bisexual people to a single variable despite evidence of differences between them in Mental Health, Internalised Homophobia, Disclosure and Self-Esteem. Low Self-Esteem previously related to higher internet use, highly concealed minorities had a higher preference for Online Dating websites. Mobile Dating Applications allow users to explore online ‘queer-space’ while stratifying how much identifying information they disclose. Aims; to demonstrate how these psychological variables relate to App Use in minority males and how they influence disclosure behaviours. Finally, to validate distinctions between Homosexuality and Bisexuality Methods; Mixed design with quasi-experimental components. A total of 698 individuals participated in an online survey. Results; Gay and Bisexual Men significantly differed on Disclosure only. Outness contributed more to Internalised Homophobia. Low Self-Esteem and High Concealment were not related to Dating Application Use. Out minorities were 7 times more likely to disclose visible face pictures. Author keywords: Outness, disclosure, doncealment, self-esteem, internalised homophobia, bisexual gay homosexual mobile dating applications, online dating, grindr, tinder, dating apps