Heteronormativity and women’s psychosocial functioning in heterosexual and same-sex couples

Abstract

ABSTRACTHeteronormativity has been implicated as afoundational contributor to both heterosexism and sexism. While exposure to sexism and heterosexism consistently predict negative psychosocial outcomes among women and sexual minorities, respectively, direct relationships between heteronormative attitudes and psychosocial functioning remain largely unexplored. The present study fills this gap by examining psychosocial functioning correlates of heteronormativity among sexual minority and heterosexual women in long-term relationships, via actor-partner independence modelling. Findings differed by sexual orientation and across subscales of heteronormativity. In particular, we foundnegative associations for sexual minority women between their own heteronormative behavioural attitudes and eudaimonic outcomes of autonomy, personal growth, and life purpose. We also observed some contradictory results, which reinforceconceptualizations of heteronormativity and heterosexual privilege as complex, multi-faceted aspects of everyday life for women. Results support recommendations that clinicians and researchers assess sexual minority women’s heteronormative attitudes and beliefs, and that prejudice-reduction efforts attend to the ways in which heteronormativity may be experienced as protective or reassuring when individuals conform to its expectations. Future research is recommended to increase understanding of the relevance of heteronormativity in women’s lives, and to explore whether interventions that reduce internalised heteronormativity may yield improvement in eudaimonic wellbeing among sexual minority women.